The Love of the Wraith
by USAthroughout
Summary: A young antisocial weapons maker from London was accidentally transported to the Continent. Not long after, he finds out about Queen's Blade and meets Airi, who was ordered to disrupt the tournament and must choose whether to save it or not. AirixOC. Picture belongs to deviant artist DeathMaidAiri.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Queen's Blade, this is made for entertainment purposes only.**

A dark-hooded, antisocial, yet polite, combat-skilled, and rich college student named Nathan lives in London, England with his father helping him make military weapons as his father believes that someday he will inherit his corporation. However, because people knew his father, they stood at a distance from Nathan, fearing that he might unleash his own gun or other weapons on them if he is offended. This neglect caused his antisocial behavior and believes his only reason for living is his father and his company, especially since his mother divorced his father that resulted in losing most of his and their son's possessions and got it back after opening the corporation.

He currently trains in a quieter area of Hyde Park to avoid attention from the public. Due to his wealth from his father, he has been a target for robbers and was forced to train in boot camps, learn high levels of martial arts, and take weapons with him in a large bag to protect himself as suggested by his father, making him stand out even further due to lack of role models.

One day while walking over the London Bridge, Nathan saw a bright light illuminating in the water. His curiosity got the better of him and dives in to retrieve that object with his clothes on while still holding his bag of weapons.

However, the bright light wasn't an object, it was a vortex. Nathan struggles to get out of it, but the vortex pulls him in and rendered him unconscious.

As soon as he woke up, he found himself in a forest awakened by some of the elves as they took a curious interest in him due to his clothing.

"Where am I? Who are you people?" Nathan looks around and saw nothing, but elves.

"Did I wake up in a fantasy convention or something?"

"No." An elf wearing a skimpy warriors outfit stood in front of him accompanied with a half elf. "You are in the forest of the Continent. Standing around you now are the forest elves, the inhabitants of this forest."

"Elves? I was always taught that they were a myth by my father."

"We were hoping to keep our existence a secret from the human population. So tell me human, who are you and why are you here?"

"I was going to ask the same about you." Nathan gets up with a disdained look on his face towards the elf.

"This is our forest. As your superior you are ordered to reveal your origins first."

"No one is my superior. If you aren't going to help me get out, I will leave on my own." Just as when Nathan was about to leave with his bag, the female elf drew her sword near his neck.

"If you aren't going to tell me, you know I will have to stop you."

"You don't want to do that Miss."

"Well then, shall we settle in this in a duel?"

"Sure, why NOT?" Nathan immediately deflects her sword with the palm of his hand and puts her in a submission with a pistol aiming at her head, shocking the elves.

"Nobody move, or this elf will die once I pull the trigger." The rest of the elves stood back, despite not knowing what the weapon is.

"ALLEYNE!" The half elf screamed.

"Alleyne, so that is your name." Nathan decides to hang his pistol in his clothing and allows Alleyne to get up. The rest of the elves prepare to kill him, but Alleyne stopped them.

"Hold it, regardless with how the duel turned out, I lost so therefore we have to follow what he says, but tell me human, I have had many years of combat experience, how come you were easily able to outmatch me?"

"I've been training since I was a kid. I guess your people were never introduced to the fighting style of my world of London. Don't worry, I will keep your existence a secret if you tell me where I am and where I can go."

"Very well. Nowa, I want you to tell him everything he needs to know and guide him out of the forest." Alleyne leaves Nowa, the half elf, with Nathan.

Nathan calls Alleyne. "By the way, my name is Nathan in case you want to know. I got to this world by accident when I was on a bridge and a vortex sucked me into the water. Do you know how to get back?"

Alleyne took a curious look at Nathan. "Interesting, than we will have to take you to the elders to discuss your situation."

After he was taken to the elders, they were shocked by the story of his origin and decided that they could not help him due to their lack of knowledge of his world and the magic that got him here. Instead they tell him about this world he is in and where the nearest city is in hopes that he could find out more about how to get back, but tells him that he will have to be on his own since the city is human populated.

When Nathan finally reaches Gainos, the Queen's capital, rumors came about a mysterious traveler in strange clothing carrying a bag and was proven true as Nathan walks further into the city. The girls, however, became slightly infatuated by him for his handsome looks, despite his strange appearance.

Nathan was able to ignore most of them, but saw several thugs trying to rob an innocent woman and tries to escape with the bag of money they got from her. As they try to escape, Nathan suddenly starts to make a move and hits both thugs with a clothesline from both arms. He notices that his senses are much keener and his fighting skills much more enhanced in this world. The lady thanked him for getting her gold back and the reaction of the witnesses were divided with some impressed while other are in shock.

"Man, if this guy is a girl, she would be a tough competitor of the Queen's Blade tournament." Said one.

"Agreed." Said the other.

With the amount of gold that the elves gave him, he was able to receive needed supplies from several markets. His actions, however, has attracted the attention of Elina Vance, who has never seen a male commoner with such skills and approached him.

"Hello commoner, you apparently have the skills to become a great warrior. It is rare to find a man such as yourself with such skills. How about I hire you as my bodyguard?"

Elina becomes angry when she saw Nathan walking away without answering her.

"Hey, I am offering you a job and you ignored someone from the Vance family!"

"Shut up! I don't want a job. I want to explore this world right now and find out how to get back to my own world. I don't care if you are a part of the Vance family, because royalty doesn't work that way in my world!"

Everyone became shocked at the fact that a commoner was able to stand up to Elina. Shocked and humiliated, Elina lets out a huge outburst of anger, scaring everybody away from her.

As he continues to explore the town, he saw Leina running towards him and jumps out of the way as she continued to run.

"Strange girl." Nathan remarked.

When he looked down, he saw a sword right below the area he jumped and picks it up. He realizes that it belonged to Leina who was running nonstop, but when he turns around, he saw an exhausted Elina, who has been chasing after him after humiliating her earlier.

"HEY! It was never nice to look down upon your rulers like that and-" Elina notices Leina's sword in his hands and became surprised. "Why do you have my sister's sword? What did you do to her?"

Before Elina could ask Nathan anymore questions, he tosses the sword towards her. "Your sister was running back earlier and her sword accidentally slipped. I have exchanged the sword for my freedom so please don't follow."

Elina stuck her tongue out at Nathan before turning back, hinting a sign of respect coming from her. The event made him realize that he might need a close combat weapon so he went into an armory and purchased himself a rapier before continuing his journey. Luckily he learned sword fighting from kendo and fencing, making him quite skilled with a sword along with the enhancement of this ability coming from this world.

As he started to leave Gainos, he saw a village nearby and decided to take a rest there. As he moves further in, he saw a little young boy playing outside briefly, but heard a sound not too far and saw a nearby hill full of rocks. There was a giant boulder on top of that hill and the smaller rocks were about to give in. He then heard panics as the children immediately treated back to their houses and the boulder was heading towards the little boy he saw earlier, who is too frightened to move. His parents tried to reach him, but he is too far off. Not wanting to see him die, Nathan reacted quickly and was able to stop the boulder with his bare hands.

"Are you okay?" The little boy uncurled himself and saw Nathan stopping the boulder.

"Yes, thank you."

The boy's parents immediately came after him and hugged him out of relief.

"Rana, thank goodness you are safe." The mother continues to hug Rana tightly.

Rana turns towards Nathan, as did the parents. "This guy saved my life mother."

The father greeted Nathan out of appreciation for saving Rana. "You have my thanks traveler for saving my son's life. By the way, my name is Owen and this is my wife and son, Cattleya and Rana."

"My name is Nathan and is nice to meet all of you."

Owen took a look at Nathan's clothes with great curiosity. "Say, you are not from around here are you?"

"No sir, I am only looking for a place to stay for the night." Nathan grabs his bag and prepares to leave, but Rana stops him.

"Why don't you stay with us for the night?"

"No thanks, I don't want to take advantage of your hospitality."

"Come on boy, you saved our son's life, we could at least allow you to stay for the night. Besides my wife and me would like to find out more about where you came from." Owen also starts dragging Nathan to the house.

During dinner, Rana took a look inside Nathan's bag out of curiousity as did Owen and Cattleya, but Nathan stops them.

"All of this in my bag are very dangerous weapons I brought with me to defend myself. You have to be very careful around with them, that is why I don't want anybody touching my bag."

"I am a weapons crafter, but you got all this cool stuff here I have never seen before, at least let me use one." Rana took out one of the pistols and accidentally shoots a hole in the wall. Rana puts the gun back in the bag when he saw Nathan becoming a bit irritated.

"So can you tell us where you came from?" Cattleya asked.

"There are a lot of things that you probably won't understand when I tell you. I came from another world that has all these weapons for war. In that world, not only are there better weapons, there are better transportations without the use for animals, wings, or carriages, taller buildings, and clothing like mine."

"Your world sounds awesome already." Rana interrupted. "But wait, how can you have transportation without wings or carriages?"

"We often invent new things and have something to power it up. For me, I make weapons as you can see in my bag here."

"You are right. Seems like your world is a bit too complicated for us to understand, but what brought you here anyway?" Owen asked.

"That is what I am trying to figure out. I asked many people here to find out how I can go home, which is the reason why I am in this journey."

Owen seems interested in hearing Clayton's story, but decides to refrain from asking too many questions. "I see, but I am sure you will find a way. Anything you want to know about this world?"

"I keep hearing something about the Queen's Blade tournament. Can you explain what that is?"

"Of course. The Queen's Blade is a tournament that is held once every four years in the Continent held in Gainos, the Queen's Capital, to determine the most beautiful and powerful Queen. Female fighters from all over the Continent travel to this city in order participate."

"A tournament to determine the next Queen? What is the history of this event?"

"I don't know myself, but know this, some people participate for their own intentions and some are even trying to stop it. Be careful around these people as most are untrustworthy."

"Thanks, I will keep that in mind."

After the meal, Nathan was given a small room to sleep in along with a small bed. Rana wants to keep examining Nathan's weaponry, but promises that he won't fire or take it apart.

Unable to sleep, Nathan walks outside for some fresh air and is deep in thought about the Queen's Blade tournament and decides to delay his trip back home to find out more about it.

"Queen's Blade huh? Interesting." Nathan remains cautious remembering the warning that Owen gave him about the events surrounding the tournament.

Airi soon spotted him as she returns from sucking the life force of others.

"This traveler looks interesting. Perhaps I better tell Melona what I found and see who he really is."

**I was surprised of the lack of romance and Airi in the Queen's Blade fanfics so I decided to make one myself. Some inspiration comes from Marchen Awaken Romance, the Matrix, and Zero no Tsukaima. This will have a bit of harem content in it.**


	2. Chapter 2

Nanael travels through the Heavens to complain to the Head Angel of the newcomer who recently entered the continent.

"Chief Angel, what is this? You got a lost creature from a different world involved with deciding the fate of the Queen's Blade tournament?"

"Its not just the tournament that is being threatened Nanael. What I did was to give the Continent a little hope for survival. That boy will soon be our only hope to ensure it, but it is up to him on whether he decides to save Queen's Blade or not and his decision will affect the entire outcome."

"Are you kidding me? There is still a high chance of the boy refusing to take part in saving the tournament and the Swamp Witch would still eventually attack the Continent in order to try to claim it as a result. How can you trust that boy?"

"Don't be so pessimistic Nanael." Hachiel spoke next to the Head Angel. "Both me and the Chief Angel believe that the boy will do great things. Don't immediately say that he is too weak or will refuse."

"But Hachi…" Before Nanael could finish, the Head Angel stood up.

"If you distrust the boy this much then I am assigning you to watch over him."

"Huh? Why me?" Nanael continues to complain.

"Because you are the only one who has doubts about the boy and therefore if you don't trust him, you will have to find out yourself on whether he will save the Continent or not."

"Fine." Nanael reluctantly descends to the mortal world.

Leina is back in Vance Castle looking for a replacement sword after accidentally dropping her's after almost hitting Nathan as she ran. Elina came into the armory and gave her the sword back.

"Thanks, but where did you find my sword?"

"I saw a guy in strange clothing holding it while I was chasing after him in Gainos. I tried to have him hired as my guard, but he refuses and instead exchange your sword for his freedom."

"Really? Who is this guy?"

"I don't know, but he was dressed in some dark clothing that I have never seen before and easily beat two strong looking thugs with one hit after he saw them robbing a commoner."

"Well then, I think I will find out myself who he is." Leina leaves the armory.

"What? But sis…"

"I want to thank him for giving back my sword, but at the same time, I want to know more about this guy. I want at least just that."

"Fine, but let me follow. I don't trust that guy one bit."

Both Leina and Elina left the castle on their way to Gainos.

Nathan, on the other hand, is exploring the forest near Rana's village in order to become more aware of his surroundings. His family gave Nathan a map to help make his journey easier.

As he heads towards one of the hills nearby, Melona stops him in his tracks.

"Look what we have here. Airi told me a little about you, but she never told me that you have such a handsome face. I was ordered to kill you by the Swamp Witch, but tell you what, if you surrender quietly, I will have the Swamp Witch spare your life and work under her."

Nathan was not intimidated of Melona and her strange appearance due to his lack of experience with girls. "Sorry, but in this world I refuse to have superiors, especially yours!"

"What? How dare you." Melona becomes angry at his refusal and attacks him.

"All right, lets see how you like this." Melona uncovers her chest and tries to blast him with acid, but Nathan's keen senses allows him to easily dodge her attacks.

"Not bad, so you can fight, but can you keep up?" Melona starts to change shape, but before she could finish, Nathan took out his rapier and stabbed her during the process.

"You dare interfere with my shapeshifting?" Melona easily got out of the blade and transforms into him in order to confuse him with little avail, knowing that it is still the same girl.

"Your ability is nothing new to me. All you showed me was one big weakness" Nathan remarked.

"What? Then take this." Melona this time does a direct charge on him in hopes that she could grab him with her hair taking the form of hands.

Nathan, in response, took out a Taser out of his jacket and shocked Melona's body as she was charging.

"What did you do?" Melona struggles to move and shapeshift.

"You maybe able to regenerate from your injuries, but that still doesn't make you invincible. What I just hit you with was a taser, a non-lethal weapon meant to paralyze my opponents, but since you are made of liquid, it did more damage than it should. Don't worry, I am letting you off this time, but the next time you want to fight me, I will be much harder on you."

Melona loses consciousness due to the injuries from the electric shock.

Using this time, Nathan runs further to the top of the hill. "Makes me glad that I watched Terminator 2 and 3 when I was younger and am glad she is not made of metal."

By the time Melona recovers fully, Nathan was already gone. "Man that sneaky little boy, he nearly killed me. I should have paralyzed him with my eyes first and then kill him. Then again, when was the last time I ever faced a man like that. This could be interesting so I guess I will let him live a little longer."

Melona walks back with a smile on her face.

Nanael was watching all the action from above and was in shock of the boy's skill. "I can't believe it, he was able to defeat the Protean Assassin. All right! I will add this boy to my harem list once this is over." Nanael excitingly flies back to the sky.

Melona retreats to the swamp, she surprises Airi as she tells her what happened during her battle with Nathan.

"He was able to stop you from moving and shape shifting?"

"Only for a while. He took out this strange weapon that emits blue light and hit me with it. It not only hurts, but it prevented me from fighting back."

"He had a chance to kill you, but why didn't he?"

"He said that he was going to let me go this time, but promises that he will go much harder on me the next time we have to battle." Melona rubs a part of the abdomen where the taser hit.

"I think I better go myself to see if that boy is as strong as you described him to be."

"You better be careful Airi. He already told me that he did not give it his all against me and I am sure that he will go harder on you."

"Eliminating the boy is Master's order so I will take my chances." Airi then leaves for the Continent.

"If Airi underestimates this guy, she will be defeated for sure." Melona decides to take a bath in the swamp to treat her injuries.

Once Nathan got more used to his new environment, he returned to the city of Gainos to rest and find out more about the Queen's Blade tournament.

He goes inside a restaurant to order a drink, but again attracted some of the other customers due to his clothing.

Echidna also arrives at the same restaurant and Nathan saw that she was taking gold from unsuspecting women. Although she holds great disdain towards men, Echidna took a curious look at Nathan and saw a huge bag next to him. As she attempts to steal his bag, Nathan grabs her by the hand.

"Not so fast."

Echidna retaliates by having Keltan, her snake, attack him, but Nathan easily grabs hold of the snake and drew his rapier near the snake's head.

"What, what are you doing? Leave Keltan out of this." Echidna begins to beg.

"Ma'am, unless you want to see your precious snake headless, I suggest you give the gold back to the woman you stole from and leave this restaurant."

Echidna's frustration becomes entirely visible in the whole restaurant. "Fine, you win this time."

Echidna reluctantly gives the gold back and heads out of the restaurant as promised, but swore revenge for the humiliation.

Nathan's actions were met with applause from the customers compared to the lukewarm reception when he took when he defeated the thugs yesterday. Nathan was not used to the feeling, but actually got himself to enjoy the people's appreciation towards him. This was the first time, excluding Rana's family, that his actions were met with praise instead of fear.

As he was about to leave, he saw Leina and Elina, who entered the restaurant earlier and saw the entire event between Nathan and Echidna.

Leina was the first to speak. "So the rumors are true, you do have what it takes to be in the Queen's Blade tournament, but too bad that the participants have to be girls."

"I have no interest in participating in the tournament even if I was allowed to, but I hear it was such a big deal and came to find out more about it."

Elina hides behind Leina as she still holds no trust towards Nathan.

"I thank you for returning my sword and I can see why you refuse my sister's job offer. Is there anything that I can do to repay you?"

"Yes, do you mind giving me the details of the tournament?"

"Of course, you see many female fighters from all over the Continent want to participate, because of the price of winning."

"To become the most beautiful and powerful Queen right?"

"Exactly, but some wants this power for their own ambition and that's what I don't want in a Queen. A Queen has absolute power over the entire land and therefore can do anything she wants with it. I am participating in this tournament so I can follow my mother's footsteps as a warrior, but I plan to relinquish the throne to someone whom I feel would be better suited for the people and as Queen."

"Now that ambition I can respect. The people here need a great Queen and what you are doing seems like the right thing."

Leina blushes slightly, but is happy to know that she has support. "Thank you, maybe after the tournament, I can find a high position for you in my kingdom once I give the throne away."

"Sis, don't just give away such a thing to a lowly commoner like him, we barely even know him." Elina protested.

"Thanks for the offer, but I want to return back home once I am done here, but in the meantime, I want to find out as much as I can in this world. If you want to know a few things about me, I don't mind answering some questions."

"Thank you for your time and to start off, do you mind telling me where you came from?" Leina asked.

"Very well, I came from a city called London in a country called England and in turn is part of the continent known as the United Kingdom."

"United Kingdom? Does that mean there is royalty in your world?"

"Yes, but does not work the same way as yours. Royalty is often determined by the people and families and not by fighting tournaments. Unlike here, both male and female can be chosen to the highest royalty."

"Wow, I see. So besides royalty, how different is your world from ours?"

"There are many differences between your world and mine, but I can only tell you some. For instance, rather than swords, shields, and magic, we use weapons like guns, tanks, and jets. I will show you a sample."

Nathan opens his bag and shows Reina and Elina a Glock 18 machine pistol. "This is a handgun capable of killing a normal person in one shot. When it fires, it is strong enough to go completely through certain material, such as a wall made of wood, something that an arrow can never do and travels much faster as well for stronger impact."

"Oh my, seems like my sword would be no match for this weapon." Leina laughs nervously.

"There are much more powerful weapons than this, but other than that, there are self-powered carriages known as vehicles that don't need animals or magic to move."

"Really? Then how do they move without magic?"

"That is really complicated to explain in the way you would understand. I am afraid that there is no simple way of explaining this."

"That's okay. Can you tell me anymore?" Leina becomes excited to hear more while Elina is still suspicious.

"The last things I will tell you are that the buildings are often much taller and shinier than here, as well as people dressed in clothing similar to mine, but not exactly the same. That is probably all I can tell you. If I compare this world to mine, this world looks like my home several hundred years in the past."

"Seems interesting, I wish I could see what your world looks like."

"I don't know how I got here myself. Maybe if I find out, I will probably take all of my friends here for a look at my world."

"All right, we better go, nice to meet you traveler and thank you for telling us."

"My name is Nathan by the way."

"Right, my name is Leina and this is my younger sister Elina."

"I'll be sure to remember that. See you later."

Both Leina and Elina left while Nathan sips his drink. He felt happier having someone to talk to since he didn't have any friends in London.

Being satisfied with the answer he got about the Queen's Blade tournament, he decides to pay a visit to Rana and his family, but at the same time, look for a job outside the city as he sees that he now has less than half of the amount of gold that the elves gave him to survive.

As he travels closer to the mountains where Rana lived, he saw Airi sucking the life force out of an innocent bystander. In response, Nathan took out his rapier and throws it towards her. Airi dodges and the sword hits a tree instead.

"What do you think you are doing?" Nathan confronts Airi.

"I am a wraith. I need to suck on people's life force to exist." Airi draws out her scythe upon realizing that Nathan is the guy she saw and defeated Melona.

"I have no ill feelings towards you, but under my Master's order, I have to kill you."

The distraction allows the passerby to escape, which Airi takes notice of. "Hey! Come back here!"

Nathan laughed at Airi in response.

"Why you…" Airi charges for an attack, but Nathan jumps out of the way to avoid the hit and pulls the rapier out of the tree.

Airi summons ghosts in order to trap him, but Nathan had other plans in mind.

"Not even ghosts can see through smoke." Nathan tosses a smoke grenade in his jacket towards the ghosts and charges at Airi. Before the sword and scythe can clash, a loud scream is heard.

"STOOOOP!"

Both Airi and Nathan turn around and saw Rana, who was crying after seeing the two fighting.

"NO MORE! NO MORE!"

Nathan and Airi withdrew their weapons, but are wondering what is going on and what could happen next.

**I don't know the entire setting of Queen's Blade, but consider this a re-imagined version of the anime since a lot of questions have not been answered.**


	3. Chapter 3

Airi and Nathan began battling each other after Airi saw that he was the boy she was ordered to kill. After a brief show of ability coming from both sides, Rana intervenes with the battle, begging them to stop right before their weapons clash. Back in Rana's house, he immediately asked both Nathan and Airi why they were fighting. Things became difficult for the both of them when Rana reveals his family's friendship with the other. Airi, however, felt the most confused out of anyone, because although she was ordered to kill Nathan, he was friends with Rana and therefore did not want to kill Nathan in front of him.

Rana wasn't done asking questions. "What happened in the beginning between you two?"

Nathan answered first. "I was on the way to your house to ask your family for a favor when I saw her draining the life force out of an innocent bystander. I thought that she was going to kill her so I stopped her. All of a sudden, she said she was ordered to kill me and draws her scythe out and that is when we start battling each other."

"I was ordered to kill him, but I didn't know he was your friend. With things now happening the way it is, I don't know what to do anymore." Airi turns to Nathan. "By the way, sucking a person's life force doesn't kill them as long as I don't suck all of them, because they can always get it back. I sucked on Rana's before and he was okay."

Nathan accepts the misunderstanding. "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were only doing that to exist. You really did made it look like you are killing someone."

Rana becomes a little irritated while Owen and Cattleya just sit by and watched. They became a little upset after what just happened.

"Can you please not fight with each other anymore? I don't want to see my two friends kill each other."

"I'm okay with that. I never wanted to fight with her anyway." Nathan responded immediately.

"Onee-chan?" Rana turns to Airi for her answer.

"Okay, I won't." Airi finally answered after hesitating a bit.

"Great! Now what do you want Nathan? You said you have a favor you want to ask us."

"Oh yes, do you guys know where I can find a job outside of Gainos? Its chaos inside the city with thugs and mercenaries inside of there and I'm running low on money."

Owen becomes enthusiastic. "Well, I wouldn't mind having an extra blacksmith. Think you are up for the job?"

"Are you kidding? I make weapons in my own world, of course I will take it."

"Great!" Owen becomes excited, as did Rana and Cattleya, who have grown fond of Nathan as their friend.

"Think you can built one of those weapons you have in your bag?" Owen asked.

"I can try, but the tools I need to make the ones I have don't exists in this world, so I can only make primitive ones at best, but I will be mostly doing swords though."

"That's fine, because we always have room for new ideas. Anyway, the small room you slept in the other day will be your new bedroom okay?"

"I'm okay with that."

Everyone, but Airi, is excited that Nathan plans to work with Rana and his family for the time being. Airi feels conflicted about this decision since she was ordered to kill him, but could not do it in front of Rana. She is also starting to weaken due to lack of life force caused by Nathan's interference, but does not show it.

Once night falls, Airi sits outside deep in thought wondering what to do about her situation, but Nathan took notice of her and sits right beside her outside.

"Feeling conflicted I see. Am I right Airi?"

Airi immediately turns to Nathan. "How did you know my name?"

"Melona told me that you were watching me and you also gave it away when you told me you have a Master. I am guessing that it is the Swamp Witch if I'm not mistaken."

"I'm currently bound by my Master's command due to her magic she used to revive me. I was formerly a ghost until my Master gave me a human body and it's been like this since then. I guess I got a little soft spot for Rana since I don't want to fight or suck a person's life force in front of him."

Nathan begins to sympathize with Airi. "Sorry to hear that you are trapped by her."

"No matter what, I will always remain loyal to my master so please don't make friends with me."

"Your loyalty can also depend on whether you really wanted to follow your Master or not. Do you even like her and the way she is treating you?"

"Regardless on whether I like it or not, I am bound to her and therefore have to obey."

Nathan notices that Airi is starting to dematerialize. "I don't want you to disappear so take my life force instead."

"What, but Nathan…"

"No buts. My life force will recover eventually as you said as long as you don't take all of it. Come on, you need it. Consider it as an apology for interrupting you earlier."

Airi remains hesitant, but decides she is desperate enough for it. She puts Nathan's face in front of hers and begins sucking.

After Airi was done sucking, she turned away from Nathan. "Don't think this changes anything Nathan. Under my Master's order I will have to kill you someday."

Nathan stands up and prepares to go back inside, but not before turning to Airi one more time. "I wish we could have met under different circumstances and just to let you know, your life is yours to control and people can change if they want to. Anyway, good night." Nathan closes the door.

Airi, however, blushes slightly and begins touching her lips. "Wow, he really tasted splendid just like Rana's. Maybe I got to rethink this through."

Airi then remembers the Swamp Witch and shakes her head to regain focus. "No, I can't get attach to the person who I am ordered to kill. I better leave quickly to perform my other duties."

Airi then flies away.

The next day, Nathan carried over some wood and metal and begins making swords with Nathan. Although Nathan was initially inexperienced with making swords, years of making weapons back in London allows him to learn quickly and since swords are easier to make than guns, he was able to make swords twice as fast as making a pistol, and a barrel full of swords were made within a couple of days, although the higher quality swords took much longer. Nonetheless, Nathan's ability to make weapons exceeded Rana's and his family's expectations.

After receiving his first pay, Nathan decides to take a couple of days off on the family's approval so he can explore deeper into the forest, hoping that it will lead some clues to the reason why he was brought here. As he was traveling, he notices a carriage carrying Alleyne and Nowa. Alleyne spotted him and asked the driver to stop.

"Well, its been a while since I last saw you Nathan, hasn't it?"

"It has been a while, but what are you doing here? I thought elves are trying to keep secret of their existence from humans."

"They wouldn't accept Nowa since she is a half elf. I couldn't leave her and decide to participate in the Queen's Blade tournament myself since Nowa will be there."

"Exiling yourself for the sake of your friend. That definitely shows true dedication."

"Thanks. Oh and by the way Nathan," Alleyne took out her spear, her main weapon. "You cowardly took me off guard when I wasn't ready and nearly killed me when I just ask for a duel."

"You were the one who drew your sword next to my neck."

"Because we weren't suppose to be seen by you during that time so I couldn't let you leave. This time I want a rematch using close combat weapons. Do you accept my challenge?"

"That depends, is there anything at stake?"

"No, consider this as practice for Queen's Blade. Besides, I want to see what your true skills are."

Nowa becomes concerned, but continues to stay at the sidelines to watch.

Nathan lays down his bag and took his rapier out. "Very well, I need to train anyway."

"Then it is settled." Alleyne charges at Nathan and makes the first move with her staff.

Nathan easily blocks her strike and attempts one of his, but Alleyne jumped out of the way and attempts another direct strike, this time using the tip and aiming for his head. Nathan moved and kneed her in the abdomen.

Hit, but not injured, Alleyne jumps back. Both became impressed with each other's ability to read the other's movements. Nowa begins cheering for Alleyne.

Nathan makes the next move and charges towards Alleyne. Alleyne prepares to defend herself, but Nathan suddenly jumps over her to get behind and attempts to strike her, but her speed allows her to anticipate the strike and blocks it with her spear.

Alleyne attempts the same trick, but Nathan was able to move out of the way rather than block it. They both then charge at each other and the sword and spear clashed. After a few close calls on both sides as they attempt to strike each other, both of them jumped back and briefly stared at each other.

By the time they stopped clashing, some of the trees were completely filled with slash marks coming from both weapons. This worries Nowa as she is appointed the guardian of the forest.

Realizing that they both have very similar abilities in combat, despite different weapons, Alleyne decides to use one of her signature moves in an attempt to catch him off guard. She charges in front of Nathan, hoping to make him think it is a normal strike, and sticks her spear into the ground for leverage. Her body then lifts up and started to spin.

Although the move surprises Nathan, he quickly reacts and blocks her spinning kick with his forearm, although it was strong enough to knock him back a few feet down to one knee, but his durability surprises both Alleyne and Nowa nonetheless.

"Amazing, Nathan was able to block Alleyne's tornado strike." Nowa looks on with excitement.

Alleyne stands back with a surprised look on her face, but later smiles. "You're not bad at all. Among all these years of fighting, I have never met a male adversary as strong as you."

"You're definitely the strongest opponent I have ever faced. I haven't had this much of a challenge before." Nathan replied.

"Well then shall we continue?" Alleyne asked.

"Only if you are ready." Nathan prepares himself.

Alleyne charges at him again and uses her spear for leverage once more. This time she makes a jump at a high altitude. Nowa immediately knows what move she is planning.

"Nathan is done, no way can he block her eagle talon."

Nathan examines her angle of trajectory and concluded that Nowa was right; there is no blocking that strike with that kind of power.

However, Nathan was able to spot a weakness.

"When Alleyne is up in the air, she can't change directions." Nathan thought to himself.

He easily jumps a long distance and manages to evade her attack. As soon as she lands on the ground, Nathan charges her at full force. Alleyne desperately tries to defend herself knowing that she was caught off guard, but Nathan was able to move the spear out of his way with his sword and punches her abdomen at full strength. The impact not only forces her back a few feet, but brought her down on her knees as well.

"Although you train your body with speed, durability, and agility, you didn't learn enough combat using your body without relying on that spear. That is your main weakness."

Alleyne struggles to catch her breath. "Where did you learn how to fight like this?"

"My father took me to several of some of the most intense schools and training ground in order to get me to learn how to fight. I was often a target of robberies, because I was rich in my world so I needed to defend myself. I thought I was going to die in some of them. However, I have never been this strong until I came to this world and that is what I am trying to find out."

"I see. Although I am far from tired, I don't want to give it all I got since it is just practice, but I had fun. You passed with a full 100 points. I am hoping to meet again."

Alleyne and Nowa got back on to their carriage on the way to Gainos as Nathan waves goodbye.

"All she got? Just how strong can that elf be?" Nathan spoke to himself.

Nowa is still excited over the outcome of the battle, but questions Alleyne's performances against Nathan. "Why didn't you use hurricane fury on him? I would like to see how he would counter that."

Alleyne smiles at Nowa. "I would like to see that too, but I don't want to reach my limit before we head to Gainos. That boy really knows how to read the movements of his opponent in order to counter it. What he has shown me is good enough. I think maybe there is still something new to learn from that boy."

Nowa notices that Alleyne is becoming more relaxed since her fight, making her wonder what are her thoughts on Nathan.

Nanael watched the whole battle in the sky and was very excited when Alleyne admits defeat despite her saying that she hasn't been giving it her all during at the end of the battle.

"I knew that guy would beat her! He is just as strong as I imagined him to be! Maybe I should follow him later to see what he could do next."

In the swamp, the Swamp Witch finally makes an appearance in the form of a young sorceress, standing in front of a tied up Airi, seemingly to punish her for failing to kill Nathan.

"I can't locate Melona and I am sure you are expecting punishment from me for failing to kill that boy, huh Airi?"

"Whatever you can give me, I will bear it." Airi lowers her head down in preparation, but instead the Swamp Witch unties her and lets her off easy.

Airi becomes confused at her decision. "Master?"

"It's a good thing you didn't kill him. I have been watching this boy all along and he somewhat intrigues me. He will be very useful if I can get him by my side. Looks like I am going to take a trip out of the swamp. You bring Melona back so I can punish her for disobeying me, I will handle the boy myself."

"Yes Master." Airi becomes concerned, but leaves without hesitation.

Nathan comes back to Rana's house where he was the first one to welcome him back. He helped out with some of the chores around the house and continues to train outside during his free time. During dinner, he gave Rana a paper wrapped gift.

"Nathan, what is this?"

"It is for the family. Open it and find out what it is."

Rana immediately opened his present and was excited to find out that Nathan is giving his Glock 17 pistol with two extra magazines in it.

"I'll show you how this works later, but only use it as a last resort when the danger is too great for you and the family to handle and please be careful, this weapon is very dangerous."

"I will, thanks." Rana gives the pistol to his father.

"We will have that thing put away until it is the right time to use it." Owen said.

"I am hoping for that."

Nathan became disappointed that he wasn't able to see Airi for a while since he claims that among all the girls, she dresses and behaves the most normal, which is what Nathan was accustomed to. He can relate to Airi the most since he shows similar loyalty to his father, although unlike him, Airi's loyalty was through force, manipulation, and magic although she hinted that she likes to follow her orders from their last conversation.

The next day, Nathan was just done eating breakfast and prepares to work, but as he goes outside to get water, the Swamp Witch appears right in front of him. Nathan draws out his rapier for caution, as he doesn't know who she is yet.

"Who are you?" Nathan asked.

"Its finally nice to meet you boy." The Swamp Witch gives a sinister smile as she continues to stare at Nathan.

**In case you are wondering, I am not close to the ending yet. You will see in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

As Nathan was getting water out of the well for Rana and his family, the Swamp Witch suddenly appeared right in front of him using an appearance of a young sorceress. Knowing that something doesn't feel right about her, Nathan took a precaution and draws out his rapier that he kept with him.

"Now boy, is violence always the way for you when meeting new people?" The witch stops moving, but was not intimidated by Nathan as she continues staring him down.

"I can see already see in your eyes that you are up to no good. If you dare hurt the innocent, I will kill you."

"I am only here to offer you a place in my army. Queen's Blade often determines the ruler by having female warriors hurt each other. Do we need that? Just because someone wins the tournament doesn't mean that she would make a great ruler. Many contestants that are participating plans to use this power for their own ambition and it is because of that reason, I want you to join me to stop this tournament. Do you want the Continent to be ruled by a tyrant? At least, that way people won't have to keep fighting for such a position and I plan to use this power to return the Continent to its former glory. All of this needs to stop so are you with me or not?"

Nathan lowered his sword, but not fully as he is in doubts with her story. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

"I was watching for quite some time boy and I think you might have the gift to help stop this unnecessary tournament. Tell me, do you really want to see more people getting hurt for the sake of power that is offered to them?"

"How do I know I can trust you? If Queen's Blade was so bad, why doesn't anybody want to stop it?"

"They are afraid of going against what has been happening for so many years. They also fear that going against the higher powers might lead to deaths rather than injury, but we can change all that only if you join me in battle."

As Nathan took some time to think, Nanael spotted him and immediately realize that the Swamp Witch is slowly manipulating him. Knowing that this would go against the Head Angel's plan to save the Continent, Nanael calls out to Nathan.

"Nathan! Don't listen to her! She is trying to manipulate you to stop Queen's Blade!"

Nathan and the Swamp Witch immediately saw Nanael flying behind them.

"She is the Swamp Witch!" Nanael screamed.

Exposed, the Swamp Witch raises a couple of undead skeletons with her magic and attempts to kill Nathan, but he easily dispatches them.

The Swamp Witch became impressed with his performance. "Seems like the rumors are true about how strong you are, but I will kill you nonetheless."

Nathan was obviously displeased with the witch's true ambition "You tried to trick me into disrupting the tournament just so you could rule the Continent. Looks like the only real tyrant here is you."

"Don't go pointing fingers at me boy. What is true is that some warriors have their own ambition once they gain this power. What will happen if one of them wins?"

"It will be better than what you are doing." Nathan goes into battle position. "You said that you will kill me right? What if I kill you first?"

Nathan immediately charges intending to incapacitate the Swamp Witch rather than kill her, but a barrier was set up just as Nathan was about to hit her with his sword. Her defense broke the rapier, but Nathan was undeterred as he saw the barrier can only block one direction.

In response to the failed frontal attack, Nathan immediately heads to the side and attempts to do a butterfly kick, but the witch was able to move her barrier in time to block it and sends an invisible force, knocking Nathan back towards the trees.

"Very resourceful boy. I can see a little bit on why my servants weren't able to kill you. It's too bad that I have to do that job."

"Nobody is killing me." Nathan, knowing that the witch can easily stop his attacks, decides to use the element of surprise to catch her off-guard.

Just as the Swamp Witch moves forward with the final blow, Nathan suddenly takes out a flashbang and throws it towards the witch before covering his eyes and ears. The exploding lights and sounds painfully incapacitate the Swamp Witch as she cries in pain.

"Aargh! What did you do?" Before the Swamp Witch could recover, Nathan uses this moment and knees the witch in the gut at full strength and again goes for the butterfly kick. This time the kick made contact with her head and knocks her to the ground.

Thinking that the Swamp Witch is unconscious, Nathan heads back to Rana to warn him and his family of her, but before he could make it to the house, the Swamp Witch summons a sword and attempts to stab Nathan, revealing that she was playing possum. Nathan senses the attack and moves out of the way. He then tries to attack, but the witch creates an illusion of Airi and catches him off guard. She then grabs his head and slams him into the ground, causing a strong tremor and breaking a small part of the ground as a result, leaving Nathan disoriented.

"I've had enough of your games. This time I will finish you for good."

The Swamp Witch, however, was attacked by Cattleya before making her move. Although the witch easily blocked her attack, the distraction saved Nathan's life. Cattleya briefly fights the Swamp Witch as Owen and Rana watched, but because she isn't as combat-experienced as Nathan, the Swamp Witch had much less trouble dealing with her.

After incapacitating Cattleya, the Swamp Witch turned her focus on the frightened family, intending to kill them, but before she can do so, a popping sound was heard and the witch held her arm in pain. She turns around and saw Nathan holding his Glock 17 pistol he got out from his hooded jacket, apparently recovered from the Swamp Witch's assault.

Weakened with blood coming out of her arm, the Swamp Witch retreats, vowing that she will be ready next time.

After the battle is over, Nanael retreats to inform the Head Angel what has happened.

After the helped Cattleya up to her feet, they turn their attention to Nathan.

Rana was especially worried about Nathan. "Are you alright? Are you injured anywhere?"

"The Swamp Witch only knocked me back a little, but I am fine." Nathan got up with little difficulty.

"Thanks for saving my mother."

"No problem, but listen, I have to leave. With the Swamp Witch watching me I can't afford to put you and your family at risk any longer." Nathan grabbed his bag he hid behind a tree and prepares to leave.

Although Rana was saddened by his decision, he accepts after remembering the danger his parents went through on their previous adventures.

"Am I ever going to see you again?"

"Of course, I will be back once this is over."

Owen comes out of the house and gives Nathan a sack of gold. "Then take this. You are going to need it."

"Don't forget this." Rana took out a basket-hilted sword and gave it to Nathan. "Your old sword broke so you might need this."

"Thank you all. I promise to meet once again." Nathan finally leaves Rana and his family after saying his goodbyes.

Airi was up in the sky looking nervous from the battle Nathan had with the Swamp Witch. She was left deep in though about her loyalty towards her master and her growing affections towards Rana and her family and for some reason Nathan starts popping into her head, which she shakes off.

"Master, what am I going to do?" Airi then flies away from the house unseen.

Back in the Heavens, Nanael just finished explaining to the Head Angel of the battle between the Swamp Witch and Nathan. The Head Angel was surprised, because she didn't expect the Swamp Witch to make her move this quickly.

"This is bad, Nathan still hasn't reached his full potential with his strength."

"What?" Nanael became confused.

"When Nathan was brought to the Continent, I gave him powers that he is required to earn in hopes that his body will become stronger to handle it. If I give him all of his new strength at once, his body might break down due to the added stress, but because the Swamp Witch found out faster than expected, more of his power must be unlocked if he ever hopes to defeat her. Nanael, this is where you come in."

"So this time Nathan must know the reason he was brought here and it is my job to unlock more of his new strength right?"

"Yes, but make sure that he only reaches what his body can handle. Anymore than that will damage his body." The Head Angel gave Nanael a small bottle.

Nanael was not enthusiastic with her new assignment. "What makes you think I will do that? He seems like he could handle himself down there."

"If you succeed, consider your banishment over and you will be allowed to return under your own will."

"Understood Chief Angel." Nanael then makes her way back to the Continent.

"When does Nanael start following my orders?"

"She plans to add Nathan to her harem and she also knows that with the Continent under the Swamp Witch's rule, her dreams of having men all around her can never be achieved." Hachiel responded and the Head Angel shook her head in disappointment.

"Something tells me that I am going to regret this, but is the only way."

"Don't worry Chief Angel, there are some moments where Nanael is actually reliable, especially when it comes to her dreams and this is one of them, but you are right to be in doubt since Nanael often gets herself into trouble. We can only hope that she succeeds."

Nathan decides to head back to Gainos as he needs more information about the Queen's Blade after his brief confrontation with the Swamp Witch. When he stops to take a break in the forest, he examines his new sword and practice with it due to the sword's bulk, which he has to get used to.

Remembering Alleyne, Nowa, and the rest of the forest elves, he decides to practice with rocks rather than trees, unless they are already dead. Soon his surroundings are filled with cut down dead trees and pebbles, as there were numerous surrounding the area he was training at.

However, after he finished training, he soon spots over twenty of the Swamp Witch's undead army heading towards him.

"Man that witch never gives up."

Nathan takes out his sword and begins attacking the skeletons one after another. Though the skeletons were proficient with sword fighting, their armor and defenses were extremely weak and it took no more than ten minutes for Nathan to defeat them all using his combination of kung fu and kendo.

As soon as he was finished, more than one hundred skeletons started showing in front of him.

"Crap, that witch really wants me dead."

Knowing that the skeletons would overwhelm him fighting them directly. Nathan decides to go for a mock retreat in order to take them out little by little. Luckily, Nathan was much faster than the skeletons and uses the spare time to create traps out of his surroundings such as vines and rocks.

He then spots several holes created by unknown warfare long before Queen's Blade even exist. Deep enough to break the skeletons upon landing, he covers it up with thin layers of grass and other plants.

About twelve skeletons went closer to the trap-filled area. When they got close, Nathan cuts off a vine and piles of rocks soon topple the twelve skeletons from above destroying them.

Thirty skeletons that were nearby took sight of Nathan retreating, they followed after by going over a log between them, but the log was actually a cover for another trap. As soon as the skeletons jumped over the log, many of them soon started to fall into the covered up holes and by the time the skeletons were able to avoid them, only less than half of it remain chasing him, but the other skeletons were able to regroup.

Nathan then remembers a bridge that crosses to the forest near Gainos and decides to take that route in order to cut off the skeletons from reaching him. After crossing the bridge, he waits for some of the skeletons to come closer to him. As soon as they reach about ten feet away from Nathan, he cuts the ropes of the bridge, resulting in a long fall for the skeletons on it and cutting off the rest who attempted to cross.

Nathan was able to destroy about forty skeletons during his mock retreat, but little did he know that the skeletons planned a trap of their own. About five minutes after leaving the bridge, he soon found himself in front of the remaining skeleton army waiting for him after finding an alternative route to travel.

"For something that has no brain, you skeletons are quite smart." Nathan remarked.

Believing this to be his last stand, Nathan takes out his sword and grabs a Colt Automatic Rifle with a M320 grenade launcher attached to it from his bag.

"Where is help when I need it?"

Nathan starts firing at the skeletons and took down many, but because they are not living, it is taking longer to defeat them than regular humans and they slowly begin to overwhelm his position.

Just before Nathan finishes his first magazine, the skeletons were suddenly lifted and carried over to the cliff where the bridge used to be and were dropped there. Nathan became confused at the sudden turn of events as he put his gun away in his bag.

"You know you are a lot more trouble than you are worth, but if you haven't taken out this many skeletons, I wouldn't be able to lift them."

Nathan looks up to find where that sound is coming from and spots Nanael breathing heavily.

"You were the one who saved me right? You have my thanks. Who are you by the way?"

"My name is Nanael, I am an angel from Heaven. I'm sure you would be surprised to see angel for the first time."

"With all the crazy things happening to me in this world, I am not as surprised as I should be seeing you."

"The Chief Angel sent me to tell you your purpose of being here."

Nathan immediately turns to Nanael. "You know why I am here?"

"Of course, the Chief Angel was the one who sent you and it is my job to awaken more of your strength. She is the organizer of Queen's Blade."

"Wow, I guess what they say is true about Queen's Blade being held in the name of the Gods. Can you please shed some light in what this tournament has to do with me being here?"

"With the powers that the Chief Angel gave you, you are destined to save the tournament. The problem is that your strength is not fully developed, because the Chief Angel is afraid that your body wouldn't be able to handle it all at once so she only allow you to use the beginning stages instead until your body gets stronger."

Nathan became less eager about hearing why he was brought here. "The Swamp Witch nearly killed me back there. With the strength I have now, she will have me killed before I even get that strong."

"Like I said earlier, that is why I am here to see you." Nanael takes out the small bottle she was given. "The Chief Angel gave me this bottle to awaken your power to a certain degree, about as much as your body can handle. The Swamp Witch is moving faster than we thought so if you are going to defeat her, you have to drink this."

Nathan takes the bottle and put it in his pocket. "Why should I save Queen's Blade by the way? What would happen if the tournament is gone?"

"The tournament is also a ritual to determine the Queen of the Continent. If the tournament is gone than there will be a violent power struggle between every race that wants to participate, leaving the Continent vulnerable for the Swamp Witch and her army as she plans to put this land under her rule. Yes, people would participate for their own ambitions, but that is better than the many deaths that would come if the tournament is stopped and the Continent being ruled by a complete tyrant isn't it?"

"I suppose."

"Take this bottle when you feel that you are ready. Remember that it only awakens a part of the strength given to you and in order to awaken more of it you have to become stronger got it?"

"I do, thanks."

"Stay alive." Nanael then leaves for the sky as Nathan heads to Gainos.

Once he reaches there, he starts hearing rumors about Leina being kidnapped and Elina comes rushing after finding that Nathan has returned.

"Nathan, thank goodness you are here, my sister has been kidnapped!"

"Calm down. Who kidnapped her exactly?"

"Echidna, she is a mercenary with a pet snake named Keltan."

Nathan remembers encountering her at the restaurant and asked Elina if she left any clues hinting her whereabouts. Elina gives him a note, which reveals that Leina is being hold for ransom and those who pay the highest will give Leina back her freedom.

"I guess that makes sense that your family would be able to pay a high price for Leina since she is part of the Vance family. The note says she is located in one of the caves of the northern mountains of the Continent. If she is to be rescued, then I want you to work with me just this once Elina. Will you do it?"

"I will only do it for my sister." Elina and Nathan head out of Gainos and make their way to the northern mountains.

In the mountains, Leina is seen chained up to the dungeon walls while Echidna relaxes in her chair watching.

**I am currently working with another fanfic so it might be a while before I can upload another chapter of this, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.**


	5. Chapter 5

The Swamp Witch returns to the swamp after sustaining an injury to her arm after Nathan shoots her with a Glock 17 pistol during their violent encounter. As she heals herself, Airi comes back to check on her.

"Master, are you all right?"

"I got something stuck inside of my arm, which I can't take out. Does it look like I am okay to you? The best I can do is to allow my wound to heal over that thing. How much of my army have been resurrected so far?"

"About more than 10,000 forces have been revived Master."

"Still a little behind, I need more if we are going to overthrow Queen's Blade. In order to put the Continent on their knees, we have to make sure that our numbers outmatched theirs."

The Swamp Witch begins to rub healing ailments on her injured arm and within seconds, her arm completely healed, although the bullet remains. She then turns to Airi.

"Something tells me that you are a little close to that boy who gave me this injury. When I fought with the boy, I used your image before he was able to strike and I was able to catch him off-guard. Tell me, what is your relationship with him?"

"We started out as enemies at first, but later the boy constantly tries to treat me like a friend, even though I kept telling him that I have to kill him someday. He also tried to convince to break out of my contract with you so I can be free, but I refused."

"Interesting." The witch begins to smile. "This could be used to my advantage to have him join our army. You now have a new mission my pet. I want you to get close to that boy and by any means necessary convince him to join us. His power will be of great use to me once I begin the attack."

"I understand Master." As Airi is about to leave, the Swamp Witch stops her for a moment.

"This time failure is not an option for you. If you fail this mission, I won't go as easy on you as I did last time and you will be punished. Remember that you are bound to be my servant, but take all the time you need until my army is ready."

Airi nodded as the Swamp Witch disappears in front of her and then she herself goes back to the Continent.

As Airi flies to find Nathan, she begins to worry and thinks about Rana, due to his friendship with him.

"I am sorry Rana, but Nathan and I can't stay with you any longer. I am ordered by my Master to take him with me and I will do whatever I can to make sure this happens." Airi spoke to herself.

Airi suddenly went into a flashback from when she feeds on Nathan's life force, but snaps herself back to reality, not wanting her feelings to jeopardize the mission.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Elina traveled all the way to the northern mountains where Echidna is holding Leina for ransom. At the front entrance of the cave, Nathan and Elina just finished discussing the plan for the rescue.

"So it's settled, we will ambush Echidna by surprise, I will take care of her and her snake while you go free Leina." Nathan said.

"I don't think that Echidna will be that easy to read. I believe that if she were holding prisoners hostage, she would make sure to use them to make it harder to get to her. If worse comes to worse, we will have to fight her together since she maybe stronger than the both of us." Elina suggested.

"Agreed. You know when you are serious, you actually show a much better side of yourself." Nathan remarked.

Elina slightly blushed and turns away from Nathan. "Shut up. We are only doing this for my sister."

"Okay, I trust you." Nathan laughs a little, which makes Elina slightly more embarrassed as she tries to ignore him.

As they head inside the caves, they saw some discarded weapons, hinting that several rescue operations were conducted in order to save Leina.

"Looks like those guys weren't successful saving your sister."

"Nathan, we can only hope that our surprise attack will work. You are probably the only one who can match Echidna in skill after seeing your performance in the restaurant."

"I only got her to surrender, because I was holding her snake hostage."

"That means you are better at the element of surprise than she is. I hope that you can apply that when you fight her for real this time."

Nathan and Elina went deeper into the caves and were astounded that there was a dungeon inside. What is even more shocking is that there are prisoners inside of them, everyone begging to get them out. Both Nathan and Elina realized that those are the same people that unsuccessfully attempted to save Leina.

"Elina, we have to get these people out of the cells."

"My sister isn't even in one of these cells, why should I help these lowly commoners?"

"They tried saving you sister just like we are now. Their freedom should at least be their rewards for their efforts."

"Do what you want Nathan, I am going after my sister."

Nathan becomes angry at Elina's obnoxious behavior. "Listen to me Elina, you either free these prisoners or free Leina yourself. I will not stand by and leave this prisoners to die."

Elina becomes frustrated, but eventually gives in. "Fine, this time." Elina and Nathan began cutting the bars and freeing all the prisoners they find.

"Thank you." Said one of the prisoners as he leaves for the exit.

Elina turns to Nathan. "You better help me free my sister for this."

"A deal is a deal."

After all the prisoners are released, the two found a door that goes deeper into the caves. Nathan opened the door quietly to prevent getting Echidna's attention for their surprise attack to work.

After a few minutes of walking, both finally encounter Echidna, who had Leina chained up behind her in a cell, unconscious. Echidna reveals that she has been expecting Elina to come to the rescue.

"You are quite brave coming alone."

"What are you talking about? I am not alone, I have…" Elina looks behind her and Nathan wasn't there.

"What? Where did he go? He was just here." Elina frantically searched for Nathan, but was nowhere to be seen.

"YOU TRAITOR!" Elina screamed.

"Now then, where should we begin?" Echidna starts charging at Elina as she desperately tries to defend herself.

Before Echidna was able to move close enough, Nathan, who has been hiding near some of the larger rock fragments, threw a smoke grenade to disorient Echidna.

"Two of my four smoke grenades have been used. I just hope it's worth it." Nathan uses this opportunity to ambush Echidna. Although Echidna is able to outmatch Nathan in skill, she cannot see through the smoke and Nathan forcefully rips the keys out of Keltan and tosses it to Elina.

"Go! Free Leina! I will handle this!" Elina obeys as Nathan fights Echidna.

"Last time you just got lucky, this time I got you right where I want you." Echidna's fast sword strikes puts Nathan in a defensive position as he attempts to block her strikes with his sword.

"How can you get me when you can't even hit me?"

This time Nathan reverses her strikes and fights back with strikes of his own, putting Echidna in a defensive position.

"I must admit you are quite skilled, but even that won't save you if that is all you got."

Echidna reverses one of Nathan's strikes and this time, knocks his sword out of his hand. Nathan, in response, jumps back, but Echidna was faster and prepares to strike Nathan head on. Nathan blocks her sword strike by taking out his pistol to shield himself with. Undeterred, Echidna keeps up the pressure in hopes to break through Nathan's pistol and strike him. Despite Nathan's enhanced strength and skills, it is no match for Echidna's 500 years of fighting experience.

After Elina lays the unconscious Leina out of harm's way, she turns around and sees Nathan being outmatched. Although she claims that she detests Nathan as she said to all commoners, her conscience prevents her from leaving him. After taking some time to think, Elina becomes angry at her chosen decision.

"This will be the only time I will ever to this for a commoner." Elina rushes back.

As the struggle continues, Nathan struggles to reach for his pocket as he tries to fend off Echidna's sword.

"So boy, any last words?"

"This boy won't have any last words for a while." Echidna turns around after hearing Elina's voice and sees her charging with her iron claws, which forces Echidna to release her hold on Nathan in order to block Elina's strike.

"Elina, you saved me?"

"You better not tell my sister about this."

Nathan nodded and rushes to his sword as Elina fights Echidna. As Elina attempts to strike, Echidna again blocks it and this time sending her crashing to the wall. As Echidna moves in, she soon finds herself bind to a wire. She looks up and saw that Elina is the one holding the wire.

"Don't think I will let you win this easily." Elina smiles believing victory is near.

"Very clever, but did you forget about Keltan?"

Elina looks at Echidna and sees that her snake is not on her. Elina suddenly feels a sharp pain on her shoulder.

"Ow, what was that?" Elina looks down and saw Keltan on her shoulder. Not only is her body poisoned, but also paralyzed.

"It will be a while before you die, but I will make sure to end it." Echidna breaks out of her binds and charges at Elina as she looks on frightened, but Nathan was able to retrieve his sword in time and stood in front of Elina, facing Echidna sword to sword.

"There is no way I am going to let you win after what you've done." Nathan pushes Echidna back.

Keltan sneaks behind Nathan in order to strike him, but Nathan still remembers Keltan and knocks the snake back, sending it into a retreat.

This, however, causes Nathan to lose focus as Echidna strikes him, knocking Nathan back hard into the rocks.

"You are a fool boy. You will never be able to save Elina and Leina at this rate."

Nathan looks at Elina, who, in turn, was also staring at him worried.

"You are right Echidna, at this rate I will never beat you so I will have to become stronger." Nathan takes out the small bottle in his pocket and drinks it. In an instant, all of his wounds have been healed and he was able to stand up.

Echidna, surprised at Nathan's sudden recovery, charges at him. "You think just because you healed yourself you can beat me? I will just have to beat you down again."

Echidna lunges her sword in front of Nathan, but he dodges and uses his new strength and punches Echidna directly at her face, sending her crashing into the wall this time. Elina looks in amazement at Nathan with his newfound strength.

Echidna gets up, but as Nathan prepares to battle, Echidna hands out a small bottle instead. "I lost. This is the anti-venom for Elina, give it to her now."

Nathan gives Elina the anti-venom, but questions Echidna's motives. "What is this Echidna? A sort of a test or something?"

"That's exactly what it is. With the Swamp Witch moving as fast as she is now, you are going to need all the strength you can get, although this test was meant for the Vance family, but seeing how you fight, I guess you will do."

"Why would you even put people's lives endanger all for the sake of a fight?"

"Because I didn't want you to hold back. I wanted you and Elina to fight me at full strength. Even if you did lose, I still would have used the anti-venom on Elina anyway. I plan to fight in the army, not to save the tournament, but to save the Continent since I am a soldier for hire. Remember that you must stop the Swamp Witch at all cost."

"But why me?"

"This test was meant for Elina and Leina, but since you are able to surpass them, I give that job to you. You are the first man I ever show respect towards, just make sure you don't lose or both the elves and the humans will suffer under the Swamp Witch's rule."

Echidna left after finishing explaining her motives to Nathan. After he grabs his bag hidden under the rocks, he then helps both Elina and Leina out of the cave. Once Elina is able to walk again, she immediately takes the still unconscious Leina from Nathan to bring her back to Vance Castle, but not before turning to Nathan one more time.

"Hey." Elina becomes embarrassed as she stares at Nathan. "Thanks for saving the both of us."

Elina turns back as Nathan continues to look at both of them walking away before going back to Gainos.

"Looks like I will have to get stronger in order to face the witch." Nathan thought to himself after remembering his near defeat against Echidna.

As Nathan heads through the forest, he looks up in one of the small hills and saw Airi looking at the sunset.

"Airi?" Nathan asked.

Airi turns around and saw Nathan standing below her.

"Its been a while Nathan."

Nathan wasn't so enthusiastic about encountering Airi. "I would be more glad to see you if it wasn't for the fact that the Swamp Witch is still controlling you."

"I maybe bound by my Master's contract, but even she doesn't know what I am doing as long as I remain in the Continent."

"What are you going to do in the Continent? Many already know about the Swamp Witch's motives and are preparing for war soon. Why would you come here if you know you are an enemy?"

Although Airi knew that fact, she becomes depressed thinking about it, but hides it. "Those are the reasons why I am here. With both sides going to war, I may never get to see the Continent the same way again. I want to spend as much time here as possible before I go."

Her statements only make Nathan unhappier. "I know you heard it before, but I will say it again, I wish that you and I weren't on different sides. I really don't want us to fight."

"Neither do I, but what choice do we have? Both of us are on opposing sides."

"You don't have to be. Make decisions from your conscience, not from your Master. If you say you are still trapped, then I promise you that I will free you someday. Just you wait Airi. I promise you that it will be all right."

"Why are you trying so hard for me? I don't understand."

"You maybe a wraith, but at the same time you are also human. You now have a conscience, a human body, and a human heart right? Isn't that what makes you human? All you will be doing if you fight is killing your own humanity, please don't do that."

"Nathan." Airi is obviously touched by how much Nathan cared, but also became distressed upon realizing that her humanity was also given back when she was revived, becoming torn between her mission and herself as a human. Before she could reply, Alleyne suddenly comes out of nowhere and attacks Airi, but the wraith manages to draw her scythe in time to defend.

"So you are here. Does that mean the Swamp Witch is here too?"

Alleyne knocks Airi back and attempts a finishing blow, but Nathan draws his sword and defends Airi from her blow.

"Stop this Alleyne!"

Alleyne becomes surprised. "Why are you defending Airi? She is our enemy!"

"No she is not. She is bound by a contract to serve the Swamp Witch, but I can help her change. I can also help free her."

Alleyne becomes angry. "Not everybody can change that easily Nathan. She made it clear of her loyalty to the Swamp Witch, which is why she must be finished so out of the way."

Nathan refuses to move. "I won't!"

"So you betray us just for this girl huh? Then it looks like I have no choice." Alleyne attempts to strike Nathan, but Nathan easily outmatches her, dispatching her staff.

"I didn't betray you Alleyne. All I am asking for is one chance for me to free her, I beg of you, please."

Alleyne takes a look at Airi one more time and accepts Nathan's decision to take her in. "All right fine, but you better help her before the war. We might have no choice, but to kill her if she doesn't."

"Thank you Alleyne."

Alleyne leaves after apologizing to Airi for the mistaken attack, but makes it clear that she has yet to earn her trust.

Nathan turns to Airi and helps her up to her feet. He then leaves for Gainos as Airi follows behind, still confused about her feelings.

**Sorry if this feels a bit rushed, but I am not that good with dialogue. Hopefully you have all enjoyed this chapter and more will come eventually.**


	6. Chapter 6

Melona wakes up and finds herself back in the swamps with the Swamp Witch in front of her, still frustrated over her injury against Nathan.

"You always were a little trouble maker aren't you my servant? I had a hard time locating you until I saw you fooling around with those pesky insects back in the forest." The Swamp Witch becomes angry.

"I am sorry, I thought I could help get rid of our opposition for the war. Please don't punish me." Melona continues to stare at the Swamp Witch frightened.

"You are lucky that I can't do that, because among the three of you, you are the only one who hasn't fully betrayed me. The other two, on the other hand, won't be so lucky. Just remember that I don't need help from you to rule the Continent, our numbers alone will be more than enough for the battle."

Melona becomes confused. "What? But I heard that you gave Airi an assignment to watch over the boy and have him join our army."

"Insolent fool!" The Swamp Witch slaps Melona. "I only did that because Airi's affection towards that boy has caused her to question my loyalty. Soon enough, his influence will cause all to betray me. This one reason is why I gave Airi this mission, so I can get rid of her and have her killed her once my army is ready. If she likes this boy so much, she can die with him."

"The boy is truly incorruptible isn't he? Wait, so those who don't show the most loyalty to you get banished and/or punished right? What about Menace? What about her loyalty towards you?"

The witch fiercely turns to Melona, frightening her even more. "What loyalty? I saw that she completely abandoned her duties for the sake of the people in her kingdom. She is no longer a servant of mine. To make my message clear to the both of them, she will be punished first along with her people and soon once the war breaks out, Airi is next. Don't make me add you on the list, because if there is one thing I can't stand more than the Queen's Blade and the opposition, it would be mutiny among my servants."

Not wanting to follow Airi and Menace due to their bound contracts, which allow the Swamp Witch to keep track of them, Melona takes the position as the Swamp Witch's most loyal servant as she was ordered to monitor her army for the planned attack against Menace.

In the meanwhile back in the Vance's castle, Leina finds herself awake in her room with Elina sleeping right next to her. As she removes her blanket, she saw that some parts of her body are wrapped in bandages. Unable to recall what happened to her, she wakes Elina.

"Hmm? What is it big sister?" Elina said half-asleep.

"What exactly happened to me and how did I get these wounds?"

"Echidna was responsible for your kidnapping. I tried to rescue you, but she easily knocked me out cold." Elina rubs her eyes as she continues explaining her story.

"What did Echidna kidnap me for?" Leina asked.

"She left a note saying that she was holding you for ransom. Several of our soldiers have tried to rescue you, but to no avail. I was very lucky when Nathan arrived to Gainos. As soon as he was at the entrance, I called out for his help as soon as possible. We then went to the northern mountains where you were held and freed the trapped soldiers first before we came for you."

Leina becomes surprised. "Wait, you got Nathan involved in this?"

"I had no choice. He was the closest one next to me who actually has a chance of getting you out of there. As soon as we found Echidna, Nathan was able to distract her while I unlocked your cell to carry your body. You probably didn't remember, because it looks as if your head was hit several times."

"What happened to Nathan while you were trying to get me out?"

"He held his own against Echidna better than I could, but was eventually outmatched so I had to help him. I hate to admit it, but I wouldn't have been able to rescue you and defeat Echidna without Nathan's help."

"Well then, it looks like I have to thank him again for the rescue." Leina was just about to get out of bed until Elina stops her.

"Its not that simple. After Nathan defeated Echidna, she revealed that this whole kidnapping scheme was just a test of our abilities. She reveals that the whole reason for this test was because the Continent will be going to war soon."

"Wait, a war just before the Queen's Blade tournament? Who is responsible?"

"The Swamp Witch plans to disrupt the tournament using warfare and chose Nathan to lead our forces. She is hoping that by stopping the tournament, there would be a violent power struggle over the position of the Queen to weaken our forces in order for her to overthrow our current system and make herself the ruler of the Continent."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Echidna told me about the Swamp Witch's motives, but I learn the details from Nathan when we were on the way out of the mountains. Several that we know, including Echidna, plan to take part in this war. We have to alert our army so we can take part to."

Leina then gets up and immediately puts on her armor. "Our army won't be enough to deal with the witch, we must put Gainos and the other cities on high alert and gather as many allies as we can. If we can't find Nathan, then we will have to lead the army ourselves."

"Very well." Elina gets up and rushes to Leina's side after putting on her armor as they leave the castle for Gainos.

Nanael, who was watching over them, heads back to Heaven to alert the Head Angel about the war.

When the Head Angel was informed with what has transpired, she turns to Nanael. "So some of the residents have finally taken notice of the Swamp Witch's ambition. While they prepare, it will also give the boy some time to train to get to his full strength. Since you are also taking part of Queen's Blade as punishment, you will help gather and fight for the opposition against the Swamp Witch."

"What? Why do I have to take part of in the war? I don't want to get involved with something that can really injure me." Nanael complained.

"Don't make your punishment worse than it already is. You already know what will happen if the Queen's Blade tournament gets disrupted."

"I know but…" The Head Angel interrupts Nanael.

"I am tired of hearing your excuses. If you ever want to accomplish your dreams, you know what you have to do."

"Fine, I'll go." Nanael leaves pouting.

Hachiel sighs as Nanael leaves for the Continent. "Do you think she will ever learn her lesson Chief Angel?"

"She is getting better, but it is hard to tell at this point. Maybe the boy might help her continue this route if she ever decides to go to him."

"With the way Nanael is, she is probably going to need all the help she can get." Hachiel giggles a little.

Back in the forest, Nathan had originally planned to go back to Gainos, but remembering that the war is near, he went to the forest elves to alert them of the Swamp Witch's ambition with Airi following after she was assigned to get close to him, unaware that this was just a plot to get rid of her.

Nathan stops Airi from coming closer to the elf tribe. "I am sorry Airi, but I am sure that some of them will recognize you as the Swamp Witch's servant. You better hide somewhere until I come out."

"That's fine." Airi flies off, but keeps an eye on Nathan from the top.

As soon as they enter the elves population, they were greeted with stares with a guard blocking them from the entrance to the tribe. "I remember you boy, what is your purpose for coming here again? Haven't you already caused enough trouble the first time?"

"I am here to inform the Elf Council about the Swamp Witch's ambition. She is already moving faster than most of us thought and some of the residents are currently on high alert and preparing for the war."

Nathan finally got the elves' attention after mentioning the imminent warfare between the Continent and the Swamp Witch's forces.

"How big is the war predicted to be?" The guard asked.

"Enough to disrupt the Queen's Blade if we don't get involved."

"You better tell everything you know about this war once I let you in."

Nathan is given access to the tribe to speak of the war to the Elf Council. With Nathan negotiating with the tribe, Airi soon finds herself hungry for life energy and decides to absorb a few plants from nearby hills to avoid suspicion.

The talk lasted for a couple of hours due to disagreements in the conditions of the elves working with humans to combat against the witch, but finally settle with an agreement to hold a temporary truce with them since the threat coming towards them is bigger than the issues they have with each other.

When Nathan finally got out of the tribe, he saw Airi sitting on a rock completely bored with waiting.

"Jeez, what took you so long Nathan? I became so hungry that I ended up having to suck life energy from plants up the hill to hide from the elves." Airi begins to pout.

"I had a lot of trouble getting the forest elves into an agreement working with the humans for the war. They really have a lot of issues with them for some reason. By the way, if you can suck life energy from plants, why do you do it on humans and elves?"

"It really isn't as enjoyable sucking life energy from plants, because they don't provide as much as I need. I prefer not to suck life energy if I don't have to, but I don't have much of a choice do I?"

"No, but I am sure that if you help us, the Head Angel may help."

"I told you that I am still bound to my Master. I cannot go and get that kind of help without her knowing."

"We will find a way. I don't believe that there are any spells that are completely unbreakable."

Airi continues to protest. "How exactly do you know that my contract can be broken?"

"You ask way too many questions Airi, but I will tell you the answer. I first fought the Swamp Witch not too long ago. I was losing the fight during the majority of it, but when I was able to land a couple of blows to the Swamp Witch, it made me realize that she was not invincible. This was proven when I gave her an injury in the arm and she hasn't come out ever since. If she is not invincible, neither are her spells. Don't you think that makes sense?"

"I guess, but even if I want to break free, serving myself to my Master has been my main source of happiness since then. I don't want to betray her just because I have feelings for this world."

"I know of your attachment to Rana since the Queen's Blade just started, but think about what your Master will do to him if she saw him. Would serve your Master and let him get killed or do you care enough for the boy to fight for our cause?"

Airi had a difficult time answering that question and instead remains silent and deep in thought.

Not wanting to give Airi a hard time, he decided to withdraw the question. "You don't have to answer that now, the answer will come to you eventually."

Nathan turns around and heads deeper into the forest.

"Where are you going Nathan?"

"I was originally heading to Gainos, but the negotiating took too much time. I need to train to get stronger so I am going to find someone who can teach me how to be a better fighter."

"Then you don't have to look far." Nathan turns and sees Echidna heading towards his direction.

"You are going to train me? I have already beaten you once before."

"You may have beaten me in the test, but not in a real fight. If you are going to fight the Swamp Witch, no doubt that you have to be much stronger than what you are now."

"Let me see how strong you are before I even consider it." Nathan draws his sword.

Echidna draws her own sword. "All right then, come at me if you dare."

Nathan attempts to strike, but Echidna easily blocks all of his strikes with barely any effort.

"You are definitely stronger than when you fought me during the test, but it is still not enough to even give me a real challenge."

Echidna strikes at Nathan, who was showing even more of a struggle defending himself and eventually was able to dispatch his sword and knocks him to the ground. She then helps Nathan to his feet.

"I am impressed, you've gotten pretty far in your training. It will probably only take a couple of weeks, maybe less, to train you from what I know about fighting. As for the Queen's Blade tournament itself, it has been delayed until the war is over so you have time."

Although Nathan is still annoyed with Echidna's personality, it becomes clear that they are on the same side. "I won't deny that you are stronger than me in fighting and maybe you can be a suitable teacher for it. All right, because we are in a desperate situation and there is no one else nearby, I will accept you as my teacher."

"If you are going to train for that long, then I am out to explore the continent in order to get more life energy to survive." Airi then flew off, but promises to return after Nathan is done.

"By the way, why are you hanging out with a servant of the Swamp Witch?"

"I believe that her attachment to the Continent is starting to change her, I want to make sure that the change is for the better."

"You know, sometimes I would question your motives for the decisions you make. Anyway, shall we begin training?"

"Yes, we shall."

Within minutes, Nathan begins to train under Echidna's guidance. Despite having some difficulties with her training methods, Nathan eventually got used to them, learning from sword fighting to a unique style of hand-to-hand combat only known to the elves in just a couple of week. Within that time, Echidna's prediction to Nathan's progress was correct as he puts up more of a challenge in his later fights with her.

Airi then returns to check on Nathan, although she has already made several visits to monitor Nathan's training.

"How did he do?"

"He is a very fast learner. It usually takes me three times as long to train someone to this level and he also taught me a little of his own style as well. Although I am done, he would still need to practice on his own to get accustomed. Anyway, the next time we see each other, we will fight side-by-side in the war." Echidna leaves after Nathan returns from cooling himself off in a river nearby, allowing his jacket to dry while wearing a brown t-shirt.

After Nathan's jacket is dry, he puts it back on, grabs his bag and heads closer to Gainos to gather more members of the army, but Airi had another idea in mind.

"Hey Nathan?"

"Yes?"

"I haven't been in contact with my friend Menace for a while, is it okay for us to go to her kingdom and check up on her?"

"That's fine."

When Nathan and Airi head to the desert, Nathan soon finds himself covering his head with his own jacket.

"You didn't tell me that it would be in a desert Airi."

"Sorry, but I can feel that something is wrong. I need to find out what before its too late."

When they reached the pyramid where Menace lived, they find the pyramid to be partially destroyed and when they see what's inside, both Nathan and Airi are in a state of shock with what they saw. Inside the pyramid, they saw numerous dead bodies of the people that work for her. As they head deeper into the pyramid, they find an unconscious, but still living, Menace lying on the floor next to a dining table.

Airi picks up Menace as she awakens.

"Menace, what happened here? Who has done this?"

Nathan places a cloth on the table and carried Menace's body to rest there with her head on the cloth.

Menace struggles to speak. "The Swamp Witch did this."

As Nathan tries to tend to her wounds, Airi goes into another state of shock, not knowing what to do as she tries to figure out why the Swamp Witch would go against her own servant.

"What are you going to do now Airi?" Nathan asked.


	7. Chapter 7

When Airi and Nathan went to the Amata Kingdom to find Menace, they discovered that the Swamp Witch, who has been secretly plotting to kill both Airi and Menace for their supposed betrayal, has attacked her kingdom. When they find Menace, she was found wounded, holding her talking scepter named Setra. The two are the only ones found alive in the castle. After bandaging up Menace, Nathan carries her across the desert to move her into the forest, knowing the dangers of staying alone, but when night hits, Nathan uses the blankets and sticks he found within her kingdom to make camp with Airi staying right by his side.

Once campfire has been set up, Airi sits down, staring at the flames with a depressed look on her face. "So its true, my Master only sent me to you just to have me killed."

"You knew?" Nathan asked as he is cooking food for both him and Menace.

"Menace told me before she lost consciousness, she told me that our affections for this world is nothing more than an act of betrayal to Master and once she found out, you get no more chances. Master has been hostile of this world, because it goes against her ideology and that it made Menace betrayed her. Now I am under the same category in her eyes, I don't know what to do anymore."

Airi puts her face on her knees out of despair, but Nathan comforts her after finishing his cooking.

"Try to look at the bright side of things Airi, at least it won't cause conflict between you and Rana's family and it will allow yourself to do the right things and find your own happiness."

"Serving my Master has been my main source of happiness since I was brought back by her. I don't know if I can find my happiness anywhere else."

"You didn't act that way in front of Rana when you were with him. Can you explain that?"

"That is something I don't know too much myself. I don't know if this is happiness or just a mere attachment."

"But at least now you have another thing to fight for, but that is up to you to decide what you want to do for yourself. I asked you this before Airi, but I am going to ask again, what are you going to do now?"

Airi lifts up her head and thinks for a little bit. She then turns to Nathan. "If that's the situation, I then I will fight with you to protect Rana and his family. I refuse to even let my Master harm them."

"She is no longer your Master anymore you know."

"Guess not, but it will take some time for me to get used to it. Thanks for helping get up Nathan." Airi gave a smile to Nathan, who in return smiles back.

Suddenly Menace came out of the tent with a smile on her face with Setra being tied up in the tent for another perverted act towards her. "YO BOY, THE MEAL YOU MADE IS DELICIOUS! Think you can teach my cooks to make food this way once I get more?"

"Maybe, but not until this war is over." Nathan answered.

"So what is the plan now Nathan?" Airi asked.

"We already have elves on our side for the war and I am heading to the Vance's castle to get Leina and Elina to gather an army. Since you two used to work for the Swamp Witch, do you have any ideas what are her strengths and weaknesses of her and her army?"

Airi becomes concern. "The last time I checked, she already had a force of more than 10,000 at her disposal and at the rate her soldiers are gathering, by the time we are ready, her army would hit more than 40,000, easily outnumbering our forces even with the alliance."

"Then we are going to have to move fast by morning. Elina and Leina has already been alerted, but it is not going to be enough if we are going to face of against the vast numbers of the Swamp Witch's army. Numbers alone will not be enough; we need to have better strategies and weapons. Change of plans, it looks like we are going to have blacksmiths create some new weapons for this world."

"You mean like the ones you have." Menace points to Nathan's bag.

"Similar, but not exactly the same. Because there is not enough material in this world to make these kind of weapons, I made blueprints of weapons of more primitive design, which might be enough to win the war if used correctly."

"Blueprints?" Airi becomes confused.

"Blueprints are construction paper used to draw designs of technology you plan on building." Nathan takes out a large sheet of blue paper from his bag and unveils a blueprint of a BL 6 inch 26cwt howitzer used in World War I.

"Now that's a weapon." Menace remarked.

"This weapon is called a howitzer, used to destroy vehicles. One shot from this weapon can easily disoriented a small group, used in my world during World War 1, the first conflict where all powerful nations fought each other for freedom or tyranny almost a century ago."

Nathan took out two more blueprints of weapons from World War II, particularly the M2 Browning machine gun and the M1 Garand. He apparently has fascination for weapons used in WWI and WWII.

"Though not as powerful as a cannon, these long range weapons can continue shooting without the need to refill for a period of time and is quite easy to reload them. These weapons are used in the Second World War by the army of my home country, the United Kingdom, and our closest ally, the United States. Maybe they could be a use for our army."

"You think these can be made here?"

"Of course Airi. With the situation we are in now, we need to take every opportunity we have in hope that we can win this battle and these weapons may help a lot, although swords and shields may still be recommended in case we don't produce enough."

"I don't think Rana and his family will be able to make enough though. You only made one set of these blueprints. How are we going to distribute them to other blacksmiths?"

"I have an idea." Menace said all of a sudden. "Setra is pretty good at spreading information to blacksmiths. Let my scepter look at the designs and have them sent to blacksmiths."

Both Nathan and Airi agreed to the idea. Setra is untied and begins examining the blueprints and gets himself to lift off.

"All right, I will follow Setra in the morning, you two help in any way you can since you know more about this than I do." Menace heads back into her tent.

"We better stop by Rana's house since he and his family are the only ones who has any of your type of weapons." Airi suggested.

"Good idea, but I want to get some sleep first. It has been a long day."

"I guess."

The next morning, Menace flies off to Setra as she promised, while Airi and Nathan heads to Rana's house. When they get there, Rana is no less happy and excited to see them after a while and becomes surprised when Nathan makes a request for his family to make weapons similar to his own. When he shows Cattleya and Owen the blueprints, they looked at it with astonishment.

"We have never seen anything like this before. Are you sure that you want us to make weapons like this?" Cattleya asked.

"We got to take every measure we can to have a chance to win this war. The Swamp Witch greatly outnumbered us in forces. These weapons should be able to allow us to match her in strength I hope."

"But we can't make weapons this big and complicated for an entire army. It will take some time to create at least one of each." Owen protested.

"Don't worry about that, I will help you make these weapons and we have someone who is sending the designs to other blacksmiths so you won't be the only ones making them."

"Then let's do our best together." Rana becomes excited with Airi and Nathan sharing the same enthusiasm.

The blueprints made things easier for the M1 Garand to be made, but they have the most trouble making the howitzer due to the complications of the model and ammunition, but Nathan eventually fixed these problems when he found out that the difficulty was caused by a small design flaw, which prevented ammunition from being stored into the weapon. The M2 Browning machine gun was also met with difficulty due to the making of the cartridge it is designed for and trying to get the metal into the right shape, despite successfully doing so with the earlier weapons they made.

Luckily, the Swamp Witch's progression with her army is slow, which gives them enough time to make prototypes of each of the weapons in the blueprints. It took between two to three months for all the weapons to be finished and decided to do a test run on them.

"Well that took longer than I thought." Cattleya sighed out of exhaustion.

"Luckily I knew the designs or it would have taken even longer to do so, but to make sure it works, lets test it out." Nathan took the howitzer outside while Airi and Cattleya takes the rifle and machine gun with Owen and Rana following.

When they reach to a area filled with large boulders, Nathan stopped and took a look around. "This looks like a perfect place to test out the weapons."

Nathan loads the howitzer and aims at a large boulder in front of it. A loud sound was made as he fires at the rock. The rock shatters into pieces and the successful result caught Airi, Rana, and his family by surprise.

It took a few seconds for the stunned Owen to come back to his senses. "Wow, it often takes firepower from a bigger cannon to do something like that to a boulder this size."

Nathan turns to the group. "Never underestimate weapons from my world."

Similar to the howitzer, the M1 Garand and the M2 Browning machine gun were also successful after seeing that the bullet made two birds fly away.

Nanael witnessed the testing and alerts the Head Angel about their new weapons.

"Chief Angel, it seems as though Nathan built a more destructive weapons to aid them for the war."

"They have the right to do so Nanael. The Swamp Witch has outmatched them in almost every single way so it is better for them to have something that the witch doesn't expect. The weapons they made maybe more powerful, but they know it doesn't stand a chance against the enemy forces alone. It is either going to be used as a delay tactic or a plan to weaken their enemies before fighting themselves. You are also taking part in this battle Nanael so it is up to you to make your own decisions for this battle, but you better not disappoint me this time."

"Yes Chief Angel." Nanael said frightened.

"And one more thing, don't always come to me unless something is urgent, understand?"

"Yes Chief Angel." Nanael heads back to Earth.

As Setra distributes Nathan's weapon ideas to the blacksmiths, many of them became confused with the designs and were reluctant to built it, but their curiosity allows them to do so. Because they didn't receive help from Nathan like Rana and his family, it took them much longer than them to built and have successful test runs with these weapons. After doing so, the weapons were distributed to the higher ups of each army, besides the elves, who prefers their more traditional weaponry.

Leina and Elina stands in front of the army of their castle with some already equipped with the recently made guns and howitzers. Risty is also present next to Leina.

"So is this all your troops?" Risty asked.

"We also have the troops from Gainos and the elves to ally with us for the upcoming war. This is the last chance to save Queen's Blade." Leina answered.

"This isn't enough. I am going to see if I can find more." Risty leaves the castle as Leina and Elina watches.

Leina turns to Elina. "How many do we have Elina?"

"Our numbers are up to 3,000 so far. Is that enough?"

"No, because I ran into Nanael the other day and she told me that she overheard Airi saying that by the time we are ready for war, the Swamp Witch could possibly number up to more than 40,000."

"Then I hope that Risty finds more."

With the weapons taken care of, Nathan trains with Menace and Airi near Rana's house. The result turns out to be a mixed bag. Though Nathan can easily overpower one of them, the two of them working together slowly overwhelms him, but continues fighting anyway.

After they are done, the three were left exhausted and Airi leaves temporarily to find more life energy. Rana comes to both Menace and Nathan and offers them a drink, but leaves after both took it. Nathan takes notice of Rana's unusual behavior and finds him sitting on a rock, depressed.

"Is something wrong Rana?" Nathan took a seat right next to him.

Rana looks up at Nathan. "Are you and Onee-chan really going to fight the Swamp Witch and her forces?"

"If they come here, do you think I have much of a choice?"

"I wish this war didn't have to happen." Rana briefly looks up in the sky and heads back home.

Nathan also went inside Rana's house and explains to Rana's parents of his strange behavior.

"Rana doesn't want to lose his friends and family and knowing that the war might possibly kill both you and Airi made him feel sad that you two are going to fight." Cattleya responded.

"Me and Airi might leave to fight without Rana knowing, but please tell him that all of us are fighting for him, for everyone."

Owen puts his hand on Nathan's shoulder. "Of course. Once the battle starts, we wish you and your allies the best of luck."

Meanwhile in Gainos, Aldra is sitting on her throne being notified by her messenger of the upcoming war.

"So Claudette and Leina are leading their own army to fight against the Swamp Witch huh?"

"Yes your Majesty, but they are heavily outnumbered and are currently looking for more recruits. If the Swamp Witch wins this war, she is going to destroy Queen's Blade."

"There is no way I will let such a tradition be wasted by this stupid battle. Gather my army to prepare for battle and have the blacksmiths accelerate their work, I am joining to save Queen's Blade."

"You should know that the blacksmiths are working on new weapons that might help them win the war."

"Then have them sent each of their new weapons to me to see if they are suitable for my army and tell the Vance sisters that Gainos has joined them for battle."

"Yes your Majesty right away." Her messenger quickly left as Aldra gets off of her throne and makes her way to the halls. The shadow of Delmore appears behind her as she walks further into the castle.

"Nobody will overthrow me. I will make sure of that." Aldra whispers to herself.

In the swamp, Melona informs the Swamp Witch of her army's progression. Her army now consist of dark creatures such as demons (particularly female in human form), the undead, such as zombies and skeletons, resurrected female warriors, etc.

"It seems as though the army continues to increase in numbers at a certain rate with our new recruits, the legendary protectors of Queen's Blade, the Dark Warriors, leading the rest of them."

"The Dark Warriors used to work as the guards of the tournament hundreds of years in the past and now they are under my control to destroy it. Melona, I tell you this again, don't follow the betrayers or you die with them." The Swamp Witch warned.

"Yes Master."

Melona then goes outside to see the massive army cover almost her whole view of the swamp.

"I see that you two have decided to join the other side Airi and Menace. It looks like I have no choice, but to fight my friends." Melona speaks to herself as she turns to the Swamp Witch, who is staring down at her army.

With Rana asleep, Nathan sneaks out to the backdoor of the house, only to find Rana standing in front of it.

"Rana, in order for me to protect you and your family I have to fight. If I don't, all of us will die."

"I know." Rana walks towards him and takes out Nathan's sword that he just finished sharpening.

"When did you take out my sword?"

"When you were training with Menace and Onee-chan. I went to your bag and saw how dull your sword was so I decided to sharpen it for you."

Nathan took a look at his sword and put it away. "Thank you."

"Please come back after the battle. I want you and Onee-chan to come back. Please promise me that you will be alive after this." Rana begins to cry.

Nathan walks towards Rana and pats him on the head. "Don't worry, I promise you that me and Airi will come back alive. After all, we aren't fighting alone."

Nathan leaves and saw Airi heading towards him.

"Is everything ready?"

"I just met with Menace. She told me that the camp is further north of here. The weapons will be delivered to that area where combat training will begin in a few days."

"Good. Alleyne told me a few days ago when I was gathering wood in the forest that she and the elves are heading towards the same camp with the humans expecting them. Hopefully they will get along."

"Shall we head off?"

"Let me grab my bag. By the way, I promise Rana that you and I would return alive. Do you think I can keep that promise?"

"It is hard to say being a wraith, but I believe that miracles can happen."

After being reassured, Nathan and Airi make their way to the training camps to meet with the rest of the allied army in the north.


	8. Chapter 8

After Airi informs Nathan that the allied forces are on the move, they both head north to meet them there. When they got there, there was a huge stonewall built 20 meters in front of the camp for defense. Once inside the camp, the enthusiasm of some of the soldiers who recognized them drop down a little due to the fact that Airi is with Nathan, except for a few, including Alleyne, who knows that Airi is on the same side…at least for a moment.

Elina, who doesn't take Airi's presence so kindly, confronts Nathan. "NATHAN! Why did you let Airi into the camp? She happens to be our enemy for the war!"

"Not anymore. Two of the Swamp Witch's servants defected to our side after finding out that she intends to kill them for their supposed betrayal in favor of the Continent. With nowhere else to go, but here, they decide to fight to keep their new home." Nathan protested.

Elina remained unconvinced. "How do you know you can trust them? They could be just spies for the witch you know."

Nathan shook his head. "It does not seem so since we find the dead bodies of Menace's servants in her kingdom. She reveals that the Swamp Witch has killed them.

Nathan turns his head towards the recently delivered weapons placed on one side of the camp. "You see those weapons on the side there? Me, Airi, and Menace distributed my designs all over the Continent for the blacksmiths to built. These weapons are capable of killing multiple enemies from long range more effectively, assisted by aiming sights for accuracy."

"Wait, so you built those weapons?" Elina asked.

"No, I just brought the designs with me. These weapons haven't been used in war for at least over 50 years, but they will be more effective in this world than mine."

Elina takes a look at Airi with suspicion. "All right Airi, you are part of the army for the moment, but don't think I will take my eye off of you for that moment. You have yet to earn our trust."

Elina turns back towards the troops with Nathan and Airi turning to each other.

"It seems like you are not very popular here Airi."

Airi turns her head away facing the troops. "I don't blame them. When I used to work for Master, she had me do some of the things that often earn hostility from the general public. What they hate the most is stopping the Queen's Blade tournament, which is what I had planned along with Menace and Melona. Things change, however, but it will still take some time for me to gain their trust."

Nathan touches Airi shoulder. "You should know that you already earned the trust of a few, including me, Rana, and his family. Who knows how many people trust you now? We can only wait and see."

Airi giggled a little. "I definitely that there is more people here that trust me."

Leina notices Nathan and Airi's presence and greets them, despite some of the troops hostility towards Airi. "Hey Nathan, it has been a while since we have last seen each other hasn't it?"

"It has and I must say, the army looks great for battle."

"Thanks, but none of us had training with these weapons yet, although more ammo is being delivered to the area for that purpose."

Nathan looks around the camp. "What are the numbers of our forces for the battle?"

"We tried contacting the main forces of Gainos, but received no response, which is a big problem for our forces. So far we have 3,000 elves led by Alleyne and Echidna, 5,000 of our own forces from our castle, Risty gathered 2,000 on her journey, and approximately 4,000 recruited by Tomoe from her land."

Airi shows concern hearing the result. "Master's forces still heavily outnumber our own. We can't win if we directly confront her."

"With Gainos' main forces out of contact, we can only stick to what we got. We can use the element of surprise to hopefully turn the tide of war to our favor." Nathan responded.

"We are already working on a plan to cut off a part of the Swamp Witch's forces to work on our ambush. The plan is not complete yet, but we are open to ideas if anyone has any."

Nathan becomes curious as he looks at the army. "By the way, who leads the soldiers?"

"Each of us are currently leading the soldiers we recruited and gathered for the battle, although we need someone who can keep all of us in check."

Airi smiles all of a sudden. "Why don't you give Nathan that position?"

"What? I can't do that. I am a weapons maker, not a leader." Nathan reacted quickly.

"But you, along with Airi, were the first to discover about the war and it will be helpful if you can give us ideas as we battle. You already promised to take part of the battle Nathan, you should also lead as well."

"How can someone with no war experience lead an entire army?"

"Both of us believe that you could Nathan. I've seen a lot of things about you that tells me that you could lead us." Airi responded.

"I don't know." Nathan was left in deep thought.

Nanael is seen flying over the camp and spots Nathan along the way. She immediately flies towards him.

"NATHAN!"

Nathan immediately turns his head and sees Nanael grabbing him and giving him an embrace.

"Nanael? What are you doing here?" Nathan struggles as Nanael continues to embrace.

"I was assigned by the Chief Angel to take part in the war of course. It looks like you now have another ally to fight with."

"That is great and all, but can you let go of me?"

"Sorry, but it has been a while since I have last seen you. Let me hold you for just a little longer since you are the only boy I know."

An obviously jealous Airi pulls Nanael from Nathan. "Sorry Angel, but ally or not, I am not going to let you have Nathan."

Nanael begins to pout. "You are no fun at all. Why are you so protective over him anyway?"

Airi blushed upon realizing that she is doing just that as she turns her head towards Nathan, who is confused with what is occurring.

Nanael sees that and decides to tease her a bit. "Don't tell me that you actually fell for the…" Before Nanael can finish her sentence, Airi rushes in and covers her mouth.

"Quiet, you might accidentally cause a misunderstanding. Don't just suddenly say things like that."

Nanael removed Airi's hand and continues to tease her. "But you like him don't you?"

"Mind your own business." Airi left embarrassed and unsure about her own feelings with Nanael grinning from behind.

"Sorry Airi, but I won't let you take away my target for my harem. We will see who gets him."

Before Nanael leaves, she saw that Nathan was not happy about something. "What's wrong?"

"I was told to lead the entire army to battle, but I have no experience in war other than training. I am unsure what to do."

"Try thinking about why you are brought here. Maybe the answer lies there." Nanael then flies off.

Thanks to Nanael, Nathan suddenly realizes what he was brought to the Continent for. Being told that he was the one destined to save Queen's Blade, Nathan reluctantly accepts the position, much to the delight of Airi and Leina.

Once Airi and Nathan gets more familiar with the camp, they started training no later than after the weapons were distributed with Nathan handling the troops who were assigned the guns and howitzers. Many hay dummies along with various items used as targets were placed in front of the gunners. When the soldiers started firing, many of them bounce back slightly, not used to the recoil that happens after each fire, but eventually overcame it.

The machine gunners were also facing problems as some were not used to the loud sounds it makes when fired and also recoils much faster due to runs being fired in quick succession. Many later admits that they prefer the old way using swords and shields, but Nathan remains unconvinced of their bad performances with the guns and convinces everyone that nothing will be achieved if they just gave up after only trying it once.

"Listen up, none of you won't master these weapons after only half an hour of trying. It can sometimes take days or even weeks to get used to it. With what the Swamp Witch has in store for us, these weapons may save many lives involved in the war. This will also probably be the only time these weapons maybe used in warfare, we have to make it count or the Continent will be lost to the Swamp Witch. I want to believe that you are good soldiers, but in order to do that, you have to show me that you are. Don't give up, keep trying and if we win, it will be because of all of you. Keep pushing and you will succeed."

After hearing Nathan's words, everyone starts picking up their guns and begins shooting at the dummies. Though many failed to hit the target, Nathan can see that the gunners are getting more used to their weapons and getting closer to the targets.

"Aim down your sights people. That is what makes the most accurate aim."

Many continue firing at the dummies. The people handling the howitzers also met their training with similar success. Luckily, Nathan modified the WWI design by replacing wooden spoke wheels with modern steel wheels with pneumatic tires for easier transportation, resembling more like the design from WWII. Many boulders that were targeted are now in pieces.

Within a few days, many of the gunners were able to hit the targets with high accuracy, especially due to the use of aiming sights attached to the guns. With Airi watching, she turns to Nathan, complimenting his method of training as effective for long-range fighters. Nathan, however, saw that there was hesitation coming from some of the soldiers. Leina, who came to check up on his soldiers, sees this and becomes concerned.

"Is there anything wrong?"

"Some of the soldiers are hesitating. They are not ready to be in battle yet."

Leina takes a look. "All of the soldiers are hitting their targets accurately and able to remain in position. I don't really see anything wrong."

Nathan gets up in response, takes a look at a female soldier in the front row and stood between her and the dummy.

"Do you think that you are ready for battle?"

The soldier nodded at the question.

"Then prove it. Aim your gun at me and shoot." Everyone is shocked at Nathan's sudden command.

"Nathan, what are you doing?" Airi yelled.

"To see if they are ready." Nathan turns his attention back to the female soldier, still surprised.

"You want to be in this battle then shoot me. Come on, what are you waiting for?"

The soldier shook her head.

"Do it." The soldier continues to shake her head with Airi and Leina watching in fear.

"I am only going to say this one more time." The soldier remains hesitant.

"DO IT NOW!"

The soldier closes her eyes and hesitantly shoots. Once she opens her eyes again, she sees that Nathan is still standing. The bullet just barely missed him on the right side, hitting the dummy behind it, much to the relief of everyone, but Nathan leaves, telling everyone to continue training, and as he passes Leina, he told her that they are not ready.

As Nathan walks back to his tent, he looks back to when the bullet was in front of him. Just as when the bullet missed, he saw it happening to him again back to when he was a kid. As mentioned before, due to his wealth, Nathan has been a target for robbers; some were even armed, though he manages to avoid most of them.

Nathan begins rubbing his head as he continues having flashbacks of his childhood. One day after he was getting out of his first grade class, he waits for his dad to pick him up at the entrance. Moments before his dad comes to the school, a car with two masked men passes by and one of them shot Nathan in the stomach, soon passing out from blood loss. They soon stop the car and walks towards Nathan to see if he had any money on him. Luckily, the police was nearby to witness the shooting driving off the two robbers, although the two officers in the car shoot them in the leg to prevent their escape.

When the father arrives, the first thing he saw was Nathan's unconscious body being carried off to the hospital. Nathan's near-death experience left his father traumatized and guilt-ridden. After Nathan recovered from the hospital, his father made sure that every time Nathan goes out, he would have bodyguards to protect him until he could protect himself. This resulted in putting Nathan in very harsh training sessions until he is an adult, giving him the skills he started with when he arrived to the Continent due to the Head Angel's magic.

Since the, Nathan, in his mind, felt that a lot of his childhood has been wasted, but acknowledges that his father only wanted what he thought was best for him.

Once Nathan heads back to his tent, he takes out a photo from the waterproof compartment in his bag of his family, although the mother's face was taped due to events surrounding their divorce. As he looks at the photo, he begins to wonder how his father is doing, hoping that he is okay by his absence.

As he continues to stare at the photo, Airi, who was watching him the whole time out of concern, becomes more sympathetic towards Nathan, knowing that his behavior earlier shows that he did not live an easy life.

Menace comes to the camp with 500 more soldiers carrying weapons and other equipment for the rest.

"Hello, we got more weapons for everyone. I hope that all of you find more use to it than I do, because I have no idea how to use them in the right way."

The supplies that were delivered by Menace and the soldiers she recruited earned her more trust from the soldiers than Airi upon her immediate revival.

As night hits, Nathan finds himself unable to sleep and spots Airi sitting next to his tent looking up at the sky. When Nathan decides to sit next to her, his presence startled Airi.

"Couldn't sleep?" Airi asked.

"No. I suppose that you couldn't since you are a wraith right?"

"I don't need to sleep. The only thing I need to keep myself here is life energy, which I just had earlier somewhere near the camp."

"I see. What brings you near me?"

"I saw how you were with that female soldier, whom you told to shoot you earlier. You didn't have an easy life that did you?"

"No, but is getting better compared to the past."

"You know that it was pretty stupid of you to ask a soldier to shoot an ally. What if she did really shoot you?"

Nathan turns to Airi. "I knew she couldn't do it. When I saw her hesitating during training, I knew that she wasn't organized, that is why I wanted to test her to see if she could do it."

"I really was afraid that you would be killed, we all were."

"I am sorry to do that, but seeing guns in the battlefield makes me wonder how my father is doing back in my world. He is the only family I have left there."

"Sorry to hear that. You know, it is kind of funny how we take the people that care about us for granted sometimes without realizing it."

Nathan laughs a little. "You are right. Once I head back to my world, I want to thank my father for all that he done or at least try to do for me."

Airi becomes a little saddened. "You really want to go back to your own world?"

"Don't get me wrong, I like it here since I have a lot more friends here than I have back home, but I don't want to let my father down, especially since my mother left us with almost nothing when she severed her relationship with us as a family."

"It makes me wish that I could go with you a little bit to ease your pain."

"Thanks for caring Airi. I am glad that we have become best friends."

"You know, when I was talking to Nanael earlier, she asked me how I felt about you. I didn't know my own feelings during that time and it left me thinking for quite a while. It was only until this talk it made me realize my feelings."

Airi stands up and asked Nathan to do the same.

"I realize how much I wanted to be next to you when you were feeling down. I remember how you tried to cheer me up when I have no place to go. I was very touched by your efforts to get me to be your friend. I am sorry for not realizing that."

"I am glad that you finally did, I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to convince you."

Airi gave herself a little laugh. "You did now and I want to show you how I really feel before you go to battle."

Airi puts both hands on Nathan's face and puts her face closer to his'. Their lips lock and Nathan was given a passionate kiss by Airi, surprising him.

Once Airi let's go of his head, she blushes and turns away. "This is what I wanted to do in case we face death. Please promise that you will not try to get yourself killed in training."

Airi flies off to another part of the camp with Nathan regaining his composure and smiles as she leaves, indicating that he has gained back his confidence as the leader. Nanael, however, was watching behind Nathan's tent, jealous of their kiss.

"This isn't over Airi. I promise you that I will find a way."


	9. Chapter 9

Nathan stares at Airi after she kissed him, knowing that she did that in case they face death in war. Despite the circumstances, Nathan was able to regain his motivation to train his soldiers how to use guns the right way, despite the lack of progress shown earlier during the day.

The next day, Nathan trains the gunner with no harsh orders, though he remains strict on whether the soldiers will be willing to shoot their enemies. In order to motivate them, Nathan decides to use a story he had read written by his father, who was a former war veteran in the Gulf War, and makes it into a speech.

"Listen up, no soldier started out better than the way we are now and if we are going to be like them, we have to keep trying. Often people say fighting is wrong, but it is not wrong if you are fighting for a reason and that reason is to protect those people. The reason that people can sleep soundly at night is because we are there risking our lives so that others may live. However, not all of us have to die, which is why these weapons were made. They were made to ensure that the hope for survival lives on. Though I cannot guarantee survival for all of you, I want you to know this; the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing (Quote from Edmund Burke). Dead or alive, all of us can make a difference, but that is only if you are brave enough to do it."

With the message sinking into his soldiers, their doubts were soon replaced with optimism and determination as they continue training. At the same time, Nathan's view of his soldiers also changed within time as he soon saw that nothing was holding them back like before.

Leina comes to check on the soldiers, but is surprised to see how fired up they are compared to before.

"Nathan?" Leina calls out.

"Yes?" Nathan heads straight to Leina.

"What happened to your soldiers? I have never seen them so determined before. It is like they are a whole new team."

"They just need to have the right motivation to continue, that's all."

Leina takes another look at the gunners. Although happy with the progress, she also shows concern at the same time.

"Despite the progress, the gunners only make up a fraction of the army. Not enough guns are being developed and we certainly don't have time to train the new recruits with these weapons."

Nathan turns to Leina. "I am very well aware of that Leina. I have already decided that the gunners would act as the last line of defense since their weapons can reach far distances. We can only do as much as we can in the frontline before our enemies can reach them. I am hoping that we can drop their numbers low enough for the gunners to take point."

"Our enemies will greatly outnumber us. If we are going to try to reduce the numbers for the gunners, we are going to have to do more than just to battle them directly."

"I have a couple of ideas on how we can reduce their numbers, but the numbers reduced will depend on how effective it will be."

"Anything will help at this point. Come to the meeting at the center to discuss it later."

"Very well, but first we have to take care of our soldiers and that means training, decent meals, and plenty of rest for the battle. You should head back to your army as well to prepare."

"I will." Leina then turns back and walks away as Nathan's attention is turned towards the gunners.

Once Airi gains the needed life force from a forest in a nearby hill, she starts flying over the camp and observes all the soldiers in training. When she sees Nathan and his troops training together, she smiles as she keeps looking. Nanael was also observing the soldiers as she flies by, but does not see Airi in front of her and accidentally crashed, causing them to fall comically to the ground, which only Nathan took notice of, but did not see.

"Hey! Watch where you are going!" Nanael complained.

"You should also watch what is in front of you!" Airi argued.

When both of them finally recognize each other, things turned for the worst between the two with Nanael fired up.

"What is the big idea between you and Nathan?"

Airi becomes confused. "What exactly do you mean?"

"How dare you act all lovey-dovey on him. He was supposed to be a part of my harem."

It took a while for Airi to figure out what Nanael meant, but when she recalls the kiss last night, her smile grew, making her want to tease Nanael about it.

"Seems like you are a bit late Nanael. Nathan and I had already established a relationship since our kiss yesterday. Looks like you will have to find another candidate for your harem."

"No way! I want to have a strong boy in my harem and only Nathan is able to reach expectations! I refuse to lose him to a ghost!"

"You honestly think that a boy would like an angel who complains a lot? How very sad of you." Airi continues to mock Nanael.

"You won't be laughing once I take him away from you." Nanael sticks out her tongue.

A vein mark appears on Airi's head. "Well then, shall we place a little bet?"

Airi catches Nanael's attention. "Very well, name your game."

"Though we are at war, we will both try to get Nathan's attention anyway possible. Who Nathan decides to work with is the winner. There is only one rule; we can never sabotage each other's attempts. Do you accept?"

Nanael grins. "Challenge accepted. With you out of the way, I can finally try make Nathan come to me."

Airi crosses her arms. "I won't lose Nanael. The only thing you will see after the game is me and Nathan fighting side by side together."

"We will see about that." Nanael flies off in one direction.

Airi shakes her head. "When will you ever learn?"

Airi then flies off in the opposite direction.

With Nathan's troops taking a break to get a meal, Nathan himself was training with Alleyne in a similar fashion from their last battle. Both are almost equal in combat, as they are holding nothing back. Many clashes between their weapons now go back and forth in the air trying to outmatch each other with speed and aerial offense.

Seeing that Nathan is slowly wearing her out, Alleyne attempts to end this using her finishing move "Hurricane fury". Her body would continue to spin at very high speeds until the wind moving along suddenly become a tornado filled with striking spears.

Unable to find a counter from his view, Nathan takes the attack head on, which resulted in several strikes knocking him off his feet. Down, but not out, Nathan jumps and lands firmly on a large tree branch, where he examines the technique in order to find a weakness. He then remembers that like a real hurricane, the center is often calmer than its sides and launches himself from the tree all the way to the top. Although Nathan struggled to reach the center, he manages to find himself on top of the striking tornado and takes one shot, throwing his sword at the center, disarming Alleyne, landing in front of her weapon before she can reach it. With no other option, Alleyne admits her defeat even though the fighting was only practice.

"You have improved tremendously Nathan. I have never fought anyone who countered my move the way you did. The counter was a little sloppy, yet unique and effective, you score about a 93."

Alleyne then turns her head and blushes slightly looking at Nathan, who remains silent as he watches her leave.

"I can see why they make you the leader Nathan. Me and Nowa will be looking forward to fight side by side with you."

"I wish you the best of luck in your part Alleyne." Nathan replied as Alleyne leaves smiling.

Airi and Nanael, who were watching, becomes increasingly concerned that Alleyne might be added to the competition.

"Seems like we got another one to deal with in this competition." Airi said to Nanael.

"No matter how many other girls will be by his side, I will make sure to win. I gotta fly off to work harder on it. Bye Airi."

"Hey!" Seeing that it might be getting harder for Airi to get Nathan's affections, she flies off immediately to try to get herself back into competition.

"I won't lose Nathan to anyone, especially Nanael." Airi thought to herself as she continues to fly away.

With break time over, the gunners were also given a moderate amount of sword training in case that enemy forces move in too close to them. The training was much easier for the soldiers since most of them fight with swords long before using guns.

With the soldiers taken care of, Nathan decides to go to the meeting in the center of camp to discuss battle strategies. Airi, Claudette, Tomoe, Nanael, Leina, Elina, Echidna, Alleyne, and Menace were all present.

"As you know, the enemy will highly outnumber us in numbers, which means that a direct assault will only lead to defeat without an effective strategy. Anybody got any ideas?" Leina asked.

Nanael, feeling that this is her chance to impress Nathan, spoke up. "We can do an aeriel assault. I can contact the other angels from Heaven to help assist us."

Nathan nodded at the plan, but remains skeptical. Airi sees this and decided to use his skepticism to her advantage.

"How are you going to do that Nanael? There is no way that the Chief Angel will trust you to lead an army, especially someone who was forced to come here due to making too many mistakes."

Nanael got mad with Airi when she got to the point, which made Nathan dismissed Nanael's idea and becomes slightly disappointed after hearing a little bit of her history, much to her dismay.

"Since you spoke up as well, do you have a plan Airi?" Nathan asked.

"It is a little idea I had when we first battled. Maybe we can use the same smoke trick you used to make our enemies vulnerable once they are blinded."

"That is a good plan, but the problem is that I am limited in the number of smoke grenades I have and it can't cover a large area which only signal the enemy forces to move out of the way so I am afraid I am going to have to dismiss that as well."

Though Airi also becomes disappointed, her competitive side still shows as she and Nanael continue to stare at each other menacingly.

"It seems like the best we can do is to use the environment and whatever we can get quickly in order to set up some needed traps." Claudette pointed out.

She then turns to Nathan. "My sister said you have some ideas on how to slow down the enemy forces so let's hear them."

"One of them I had in mine was the use of creating pitfall traps in the further areas to slightly disorientate their movements. It is what I used to stop some of the Swamp Witch's army in their tracks."

Tomoe is slightly impressed with the battle strategy. "It hasn't been done much in a major war, but it might be effective."

Alleyne also approved of the plan and promised to have the elves work on it along with Menace and the soldiers she was able to recruit to help out.

"Just make sure to have them hidden and at a distance for when the army arrives to make sure it works." Claudette ordered as she turns back to Nathan.

"What is next?"

"It is a good idea to keep the pitfall traps a long distance away from the army. For the next idea, do we have any material that can burst into high flames?"

"We have bags of oil if that is what you need for fire. You plan to make a fire trap for them?" Elina asked.

"Yep. We will make about 3 lines of oil bags covered by the grass and when they cross it, my claymores will explode upon their presence with each line separating the enemy divisions."

Airi becomes slightly confused "What are claymores?"

Nathan completely forgot that he hasn't introduced claymores to anyone he knows. He decides to save the trouble by grabbing his bag, putting his hand inside on one side where his main gun is and took out a MM-1 Minimore, which is a small-sized version of the M18A1 claymore mine, originating from the United States.

"This is a claymore mine, an explosive device concealed on the ground designed to disable or destroy enemy forces that comes near it. It doesn't look like much, but the explosion it will cause will definitely ignite the flames on the oil line. Plus with the design, the enemy will probably think the mine will be harmless. I only have three so we can only make three oil lines for it to work."

"They won't exactly come from the front directly you know." Echidna pointed out.

"Those claymores weren't meant for enemies coming directly from the front. In order for us to cut down enemy forces, we have to let them pass the three lines to divide them, making them vulnerable for our own charge. I am counting on what you said Echidna."

Echidna also becomes impressed with Nathan's battle strategy. "Smart idea to cover all possible areas the enemies could be charging from. Their only other way is through the forest and the elves know the area very well, leading to our advantage."

Airi realizes that not all enemy positions have been covered and immediately attempts to notify Nathan of this.

"Nathan, some of the enemy forces don't move on land. For those who can fly, leave the situation to me and my lesser spirits for that job."

"Sounds promising. I will leave you in charge of aerial offense then."

Airi becomes excited at Nathan's decision to have her lead, much to the dismay of Nanael, who wanted the same attention.

"My levitation powers can also help push back a bit of the army if you would like."

"Thanks for suggesting that Nanael. That idea will help increase our defenses and allow us to fall back if there is a time to."

As expected, Nanael becomes happy earning the attention, though her main focus is still to compete with Airi. With matters of today's meeting resolved for now, everyone heads back to their assigned positions.

However, the competitive nature of Airi and Nanael is getting worse. Soon, their game transforms from a friendly competition into very hostile arguments.

"I already lead the spirits to form aerial combat! You are no longer needed for this army Nanael!"

"Says you! The ground forces also need help and all you are doing is flying up in the air!"

"The army itself is strong enough for that! The way you act towards Nathan is inexcusable, especially since you can't take losing him, even when I already got him by my side!"

"Ha! When Nathan's time comes, you know that Heaven will be where he is welcome! Do you honestly think he will want to live his life in a swamp?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU STOP!" Nathan yelled.

"I have been getting all sorts of complaints about you two always fighting. I don't know what you two are fighting about, but we are at war. Soon enough, you will have to learn how to put it aside and work together to fight. Fight the enemies, not each other, got it?"

"But Nathan…" Nanael and Airi tried to protest.

"But nothing. If you two can't get along, then you both are unsuited for battle. I will ask you one more time, do I make myself clear?"

Both Nanael and Airi soon feel ashamed after being scolded.

"Yes sir." Both of them replied.

"I already expected better of you so please don't disappoint me anymore." Nathan left the two alone to resume training.

With both of them no longer fighting, Nanael and Airi remained quiet with their thoughts focused only on what is expected of them by others.

"Hey, Nanael?"

"Yes?"

"I think we both already figured out why people here are mad at us."

"Me too. We were wrong to fight with each other when there is already a battle just inches away to determine the fate of the Continent."

"So how about it? Want to put our bet aside until after the war?"

"I think it is best to let Nathan decide. He expects the best from both of us so maybe we should keep that promise instead."

"I was thinking the same thing. We will let Nathan decide whom he wants to be with. Even if he picks you, I would probably be not as angry as I used to be."

"If Nathan picks you then I wish you two the best. Hopefully, there will be another boy just like him coming from the same world."

Soon enough, both girls find themselves giggling at each other over their fantasies. When they shook hands, both of them felt that they have finally buried the hatchet that kept the two apart.

"We may not be the best of friends, but let's do our best to support each other from now on."

Airi then flies off to get more life energy as Nanael nodded with approval, smiling at Airi as she disappears from her sight.

**Sorry this chapter took a little longer, but everyone needs a break after working on tests before the summer. Anyway, thanks for waiting and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I will be working on another fanfic soon along with this one. The speech was inspired by elements from MW3 and We Were Soldiers. I know its not good, but I don't really know how to write a good war speech so I will leave it as it is.**


	10. Chapter 10

With Airi and Nanael now becoming more than capable of working together, they decided to keep watch from the skies to see if there are signs of enemy activity near or within the camp. Airi spots a female soldier holding a gun in her hand and attempting to get out of the camp with it.

"Nanael, there is a spy attempting to steal a weapon."

"All right, I will warn the others. You stop the spy from leaving." Nanael flies off to Nathan.

"You won't get away." Airi summons a few of her lesser spirits and captures the soldier.

"What is this? Let me go!" The soldier screamed.

Air landed in front of her. "You didn't think we would notice a traitor among the camp did you?"

"You're no better yourself going against your former Master after what she did to revive you."

"I probably wouldn't have left her if she didn't try to have me and Menace killed. Come on, we will see what your punishment is." Airi then drags her prisoner back into the camp.

When Nathan was alerted, he immediately rushed to find out whom the traitor was.

"A soldier of the Swamp Witch, disguised as one of ours to spy and steal. Let me tell you that you are the biggest disappointment I have ever come across in this camp."

"It doesn't matter. I've seen almost all of your camp and I got to tell you, I expected more numbers than this. All of you will soon fall before her even if you take me out."

Nathan turns to Claudette, who also rushes out after finding out about the situation. "It looks like we have our first prisoner of war. Have Risty interrogate her to see if she has any valuable information about the Swamp Witch and her forces.

"Understood." Claudette had her soldiers drag the prisoner away after returning the stolen weapon.

Nathan then turns to everyone else. "Have more security measures taken in case there are more enemy spies within the camp. We will not allow them to jeopardize our chances of winning this war."

"Yes sir!" The soldiers agreed to keep watch as they return to their positions.

The efforts of Nanael and Airi also caught Nathan's attention.

"Very good you two. I'm impressed with how well you two are able to work together. Keep it up and our chances of ending the war early will increase."

Airi and Nanael both looked at each other and smiled briefly before continuing their patrol.

Airi turns to Nathan. "Make sure not to leave us out when there is anything important okay?"

"I'll make sure that everybody is informed on what is needed, but you also have to do the same like you did earlier. Anyway, like I said, keep it up."

"Okay." Nanael flies off with Airi following behind.

Back in the swamp, Melona informed the Swamp Witch about the informants capture and she did not take the news too well.

"It appears that the land dwellers are getting smarter, especially with two of my traitors helping them. It seems as though they will provide a challenge after all, despite their smaller numbers. Nonetheless, they will never be able to overwhelm my army if that is the best they can do."

"The informant's capture could cause a high change in their security, making it harder for us to find out what they are exactly planning, while the advantage goes to them with our informant, Airi, and Menace giving them our information." Melona responded.

"It doesn't matter, because the more people stay within the camp, the less I have to deal with against their main forces. Melona, gather my forces, we have to move out quickly before too much information is given to them."

"Understood." Melona had the soldiers march to await further orders, but shows concern about fighting her former friends and wonders whether her loyalty to the Swamp Witch is worth this war.

"I don't know if I can bring myself to kill them." Melona whispers to herself, but nonetheless, follows the army under the witch's orders.

Back in the camp, Nathan decides to have training done with Echidna. After he finds getting a drink from a nearby river, Nathan hands over a spare sword to Echidna.

"What is this Nathan?" Echidna asked.

"You are the only one who I haven't defeated yet at both of our full strength, I want to see how much I can do against you."

Echidna smiles as she takes out her own sword. "I guess it is better to be more prepared for the war. Very well, I accept your challenge."

After Nathan draws his own sword, both him and Echidna charged at each other until their swords clash.

"Your grip on the sword has improved, but let's see if you have learned enough to dodge this."

Echidna attempts to disarm Nathan, but did not let go. Nonetheless, Echidna waves off his sword and attempts to sweep his legs using her own. Nathan responded to the attack by jumping and swings his sword from above, which Echidna is able to block.

"Your reflexes have also gotten much better. This will be an interesting fight after all."

"You can only get better as long as you keep trying, which is what I did." Nathan responded.

"I expected this much from you, but whether you've improved enough to defeat me is still in question. Let us continue to find out."

Echidna got out of the defensive position and jumps back a certain distance from Nathan. She then attempts another charge at Nathan, this time trying to hit fast multiple strikes with her sword, making Nathan desperate as he tries to block each strike.

As Nathan keeps blocking her strikes, he begins to examine the attack movements for a possible counter.

"There has got to be a way for me to get out of this." Nathan thought to himself.

He soon sees that in order for Echidna to continue this attack, she has to keep herself moving forward. Nathan uses this by dodging the last strike and moves for a strike towards Echidna. Echidna realizes that Nathan is attempting to strike a counter move and took out her shield to block Nathan's strike after he waves off her sword. Before she can use Keltan to strike, Nathan jumps back a certain distance from Echidna, similar to what she did earlier.

"Okay, I've got to admit, that counter was very impressive. I didn't expect anyone to figure it out so quickly."

"You were the one who trained me, of course I would know some of your moves."

"You got me there. Come on, I want to have more fun."

Their battle got more intense as they attempt to outdo each other using speed and agility rather than strength. Despite Echidna's much longer experience in combat, several factors during Nathan's journey in the Continent allows him to keep up with her skills as if he had several hundred years of training as well.

"I had fought many men before, but none pose as much of a challenge as you." Echidna blocks another one of Nathan's strikes.

"You are the only one, along with the Swamp Witch, I ever lost a fair fight against so compliments to you as well." Nathan also blocks Echidna's strike.

Unknown to them, both Alleyne and Nowa are watching the battle from the trees.

"Amazing, I had no idea Nathan could be this strong to keep up with Echidna in a fight." Nowa becomes excited as she watches.

"He defeated me earlier in a practice battle when you were busy gathering arrows for the rest of the elves. It is no surprise that he would be able to keep up with Echidna. Still though, I am impressed with what the boy has learned in such a short time. The counter against Echidna's multiple strikes is impressive. 94 points on Nathan's part for his ability to analyze his opponents weakness and taking advantage of it. Echidna, with her ability to immediately switch from offense to defense is also impressive. 92 points for her." Alleyne remarked.

"With those two on the same side, we can guarantee that we will not make it easy for the Swamp Witch to win."

"That is quite an understatement since Nathan currently leads the whole army with his battle strategies, including the use of new weapons that were brought to us by him. Without Nathan, our chances to prepare against the Swamp Witch will be very low, so I am glad that he is here."

Nowa becomes a little curious and briefly turns her attention away from the battle. "Instructor, I have never seen you care for another like that other than me. What exactly did he do to make you soft towards him?"

Alleyne immediately blushes at Nowa's question. "That information is only for me to know Nowa. All I can tell you is that maybe I might have learned a lesson from him after our first fight you witness."

"And what lesson is that?"

Alleyne looks up and smiles. "The lesson to trust others even if others don't. He was the only person I know who trusted my decision to leave my tribe to fight alongside you and the only human I have ever trusted this much to tell of my intentions. It's because of him that some of our former enemies are now fighting alongside us. In case the battle does not turn to our favor, the importance of him of being here is enough for me to protect him to make sure that he can fight to protect others. Nowa, you would be able to learn a lesson as well if you are the one who gets to fight him."

"Instructor, I think that is more than enough of a reason. Basically in other words, you like him."

Alleyne becomes flustered and strongly denies showing strong affection towards Nathan. "You already know that a relationship between the humans and elves is forbidden Nowa and there is no way that could happen because of it."

"That forbidden relationship is the reason why I was born since I am a half elf. I did notice that you have become incredibly soft towards him so there is no denying it now." Nowa continues to tease.

Alleyne becomes angry. "Keep this up and you will be punished by me."

Nowa becomes fearful of Alleyne's threat. "AHH! I am sorry Instructor, I will stop talking about it!"

With that out of the way, Alleyne and Nowa turns their attention back to the battle.

As Nathan and Echidna continue clashing swords, neither one of them shows signs of holding back or fatigue as they continue to fight the same way as the beginning.

"Neither one of us is able to land a direct blow so maybe it is time for me to give it all I got. Prepare yourself Echidna."

"If you are planning to do a final charge, then you must be a full to think I am going to fall for that."

"We shall see." Nathan faces his sword towards Echidna and lunges. Analyzing his aim, he charges towards Echidna at full speed. Echidna thought he had him figure out and tosses his sword outside with his own.

"I've got you right where I want you."

Echidna realized too late that tossing his sword was actually a part of his plan to leave her arm out. Nathan grabs Echidna's arm to prevent her from striking her sword and kicks Keltan to her abdomen to prevent her from striking and grabbing her other arm. Nathan then head butts her, causing her to become slightly disoriented, allowing Nathan to strike with a 540 crescent kick, knocking her into the water.

"Looks like I win this one." Nathan said as he watches Echidna get out of the water.

"That was a cheap shot using your head you know." Echidna still holds on to her head in pain.

"There are no rules when you are directly fighting someone in war. You can only do what you can to take down your enemy, especially if the enemy tries to destroy you."

"Fair enough. That was quite a kick back there. What do you call that technique?"

"The one I did is called the 540 crescent kick, which some people call the tornado kick. It is a common move in Taekwondo, a type of martial arts of a certain country in my world with a long history behind it."

"Seems like your world teaches some unique fighting styles don't they?"

"Yes, but as a price, you don't get as much sword training since guns replaced them as the main weapon in warfare."

"Makes me glad I am not going to your world anytime soon."

"Unfortunately, that is your problem Echidna. You rely on mostly using your sword and shield that you forgot how to use your body as a weapon. You have great speed and agility and no doubt that you know basic concept, but you can do more with your body than that."

"It seems like I have something new to learn then. Anyway, I have to get back to the camp. I will see you there." Echidna then walks away.

Alleyne and Nowa looked at each other with slight confusion after the battle. "So Instructor, what do you think?"

"I agree with Echidna that it was cheap for Nathan to use his head as a weapon to catch her off guard, but it is unique and quite effective. This is the first time I saw someone defeated like that, let alone Echidna. 89 points."

"Well, for me, this was probably the greatest fight I've ever seen, especially seeing Echidna lose a fight for the first time. I agree with you, he really does make an impact here. I hope he can continue this once the war starts."

"Don't worry. Once the battle begins, we will be giving it our all. Let's go back Nowa. I heard that some of the horses are already being delivered for battle."

Both Alleyne and Nowa then heads back to the camp. By the time they got back, more than 2,000 horses were already delivered as they plan to charge in the front to overpower their enemies using inertial mass and to protect the rest of the main forces running on foot.

Meanwhile, Nathan is back into the center again with other army leaders discussing plans for the war.

"We know that the enemies won't just come back to the plains after they retreated back to the forest so here is what we will do. Since the elves know the area so well, we could outflank them by having them fire arrows to enemy troops forcing them back to the field to allow the other traps to activate before we make our charge."

Alleyne agrees with the plan, but is also cautious about it. "It is an effective strategy, but the elven army numbers up to only several thousand. In order for the plan to work, we cannot be seen."

"I am well aware of that and that is what we will use to our advantage as well. If the elves conceal themselves completely, the opposing army will think that they are fighting a larger force than we really are, making it more effective to make them retreat back to the plains once we call them to fire."

"Good, our battle strategy is getting more effective. With the war nearing, we must have every position covered. Do we have enough arrows for this plan?" Claudette asked.

"More than 60,000 have been made in total. We already had more than 40,000 made when we first got here." Elina replied.

"That will be more than enough. Now my only concern is whether it will work."

"It should since they would have nowhere else to go since the forest is their only alternative, but guns will also be distributed to half of the elves trained for it in case there are those that are willing to go deeper, along with the sword training the elves already received." Nathan assured.

Claudette then turns to Airi. "You used to be a servant to the Swamp Witch. Are you sure that we can trust you?"

Airi then becomes serious. "Yes. I have served my Master for quite sometime only to find out that she purposely sent me away to be killed out of my human body. I want to repent my mistakes I have made while serving under her by helping you win the war."

"If that is the case, how many lesser spirits will you be able to summon?" Leina asked.

"If I used all of my energy, I should be able to summon more than 500 to aid you in battle, but I myself cannot continue and will have to retreat to get more life energy before returning."

"Just remember that the Swamp Witch still outnumbers us so we still can't let our guard down." Menace warned.

"The more difficult it is, the more interesting the battle gets." Risty replied.

"I have resurrected more of my servants to aid you, but that is all I can do for the army besides combat."

"That's okay. What you did was improved our numbers and help along with the plan." Airi smiled.

Before the meeting is dismissed, Nanael and Setra suddenly came barging in a panic.

"The Swamp Witch is coming! The Swamp Witch is coming!" Setra screamed.

Everybody is put on high alert upon hearing the news.

"The Swamp Witch is already making her move?" Nathan asked.

"Yes! I used a little of my holy milk to create a temporary barrier. Hurry up and get everyone to position!"

"Right, Airi summon the spirits, Nanael, you help assist the spirits in combat unless called, Risty, distribute the horses, Leina and Elina, get your own troops gathered outside the wall and meet in the frontline, Menace and Tomoe, you do the same, Alleyne and Nowa, you two get the elves to both sides of the forest, Echidna, order the lieutenant to distribute the guns to the elves, I will gather the gunners to the stonewall above and outside for defense, Claudette, you are with me to assist our troops' position. Are you all ready? Good, now go!" Nathan ordered as everyone scrambles to fulfill their assigned jobs.

Nathan turns to Setra. "What is the situation?"

"Very high numbers, about 60,000 heading your way."

"Help assist anyway you can Setra."

"Understood." Setra then flies off.

"Where is the army of Gainos when you need them?" Nathan whispers to himself.

Not too far from the traps set up some distance away from the camp, the barrier wears off, allowing the Swamp Witch and her forces to move as they approach closer to the camp.


	11. Chapter 11

With the war nearing faster than expected, everyone rushes desperately to their battle positions as the Swamp Witch's army gets closer to the camp. Nathan grabs his binoculars and took sight of the army, not far from their expected positions. Once everyone is ready, Airi comes near Nathan to ask how the progress is.

"How is everything going so far?"

"Their numbers are slightly higher than expected, but everything is going according to plan so far as they are slowly heading towards our trap filled areas. If the witch summons aerial creatures, make sure to have the spirits ready for battle."

"Understood."

Nathan turns to Airi. "Airi, if I were to die in this battle, I just wanted to say that I was glad to have met you. I was hoping that someday that I would take you to my world to let you experience the new sights and sounds. I just hope that we both can live to see it."

Airi kisses Nathan on the cheek. "Don't say it as if you can already see your death, we are all in this together Nathan. You, Nanael, Menace, Alleyne, many others, and me are all fighting by your side. I want to see them try to kill us."

Nathan smiles in response. "You sure have grown quite a bit Airi. You used to believe that the best for the Continent is for it to be what under the Swamp Witch's desire. Now you believe what the people believed in what is best."

Airi slightly blushes. "Well, you, along with Rana, were the ones who made me realize the wrongs I have committed with my actions. Well, I knew they were wrong, but I guess I never knew too much values before meeting you two."

"I'm just glad we were able to change you for the better."

Before their conversation could continue further, Setra interrupted them.

"I don't mean to interrupt your last conversation, but the army is getting really close to your traps."

Nathan uses his binoculars and saw that the enemy is coming closer as Setra said.

"Tell the archers in the forest to get ready to fire once the pitfall trap activates. We've got to make sure that our enemies stay on the fields."

"Yes sir." Setra flies off.

As Nathan looks closer at the Swamp Witch's army, he can see that her army has split into 4 separate divisions with each slightly outnumbering their entire force of now roughly 15,000.

With the Swamp Witch and Melona in the front, they become suspicious of seeing an empty battlefield in front of them, but decided that the fight has to begin now. The witch sends the first division ahead of the other three to make a charge while she, and Melona stay back with the last division.

The main forces, along with their leaders riding on the distribute horses, show signs of fear as they are gathered in front of the stone wall, with the exception of Menace, Echidna, and Claudette, but are determined to battle.

"Wow, their numbers do greatly exceed our own." Elina nervously remarked.

"Just because their numbers are greater doesn't mean that they will win." Said the more determined Leina.

"Agreed. It doesn't take numbers to win as much as skill and experience, which many of us have." Echidna takes out her sword in preparation.

"Everyone, prepare yourselves. Once all the traps die down, it will be our turn to make a charge." Risty arrives in the front with her cavalry

"Here they come." Nathan sees that the charge of the first division is slowly weakening the ground beneath them, which goes according to plan. Once the first division passes a certain distance, the ground beneath them is no longer able to hold, causing many soldiers of the first division to fall into many giant sinkholes built by the elves under Alleyne's command.

Alleyne is seen hiding on top of a tree with a few hundred elves on each side of the forest near the tree line to the field. Alleyne raises her hand up as the archers prepare themselves. Once all the sinkholes have been filled, Alleyne lowers her hand and the archers immediately fire a cloud of arrows, taking down many surviving soldiers of the first division.

The rest of the first division attempts to charge into each side of the forest, only to get cut down by unseen archers located deeper within the forest. Seeing the first division faring poorly, the Swamp Witch sends the second division into the forest to take care of the archers. Alleyne, having foreseen this, signal the gunners sent to the forest to assist the archers. Knowing that the second division will overwhelm them, they immediately started firing on sight as a barrage of bullets and arrows continuously striking enemy soldiers before they can even react in hopes of sending them into a retreat back to the fields. It was mostly successful, although a few stay in the forest to continue, but were easily cut off.

Despite the majority of both the first and second division still standing, it becomes clear that they are slowly being overwhelmed, but the Swamp Witch refuses to send the third division until the first two can fight back.

Unable to see their assailants, they decided to put most of their offensive towards the camp. Much to the surprise of the allied forces, the Swamp Witch's army have cannons of their own, although more primitive compared to their WWII-era howitzers, and start firing at the stonewall defending the camp.

In response, an artillery battery is formed with the howitzers behind the stone wall and begins firing at the enemy battery. Although the shells are heavy, weighing as much as 86 pounds, they were highly explosive and caused more damage to the enemy battery as a result, destroying more than a third of the cannons used and knocking down a huge majority of enemy soldiers surrounding it, while the allied battery and main forces only suffered light casualties and partial structural damage on the wall. The Swamp Witch was very impressed with the firepower of the howitzers.

"Such firepower is very rare in my army. I have to remember to add it to my list once this war is over."

The Swamp Witch summons several dozen resurrected soldiers on flying creatures (birds, dragons, etc) in an attempt to stop the allied battery from firing.

"It appears that the Swamp Witch is going aerial, summon the spirits now Airi."

Having already anticipated that move, Airi gathers all of her energy in her body and releases it to summon a mass of several hundred spirits.

"Lesser spirits, I command you stop the enemy from advancing and kill them."

The spirits obey, but Airi, having already realized that her clothes are vanishing, retreats from battle to find and absorb more life energy.

"Just hang on until I come back Nathan." Airi said as she flies off, although Nathan did not hear her.

As the spirits fly towards the enemies' aerial offense, they aim towards the creatures the enemy troopers were riding on. They used their bodies to forcefully wrap their wings, preventing the creatures from flying, causing both the creature and the enemy trooper to fall from high altitude, permanently taking them out of battle.

Despite some of the enemy soldiers being undead, they became just as desperate as the rest as the two divisions slowly start scrambling each other. The Swamp Witch was not surprised of her failed aerial attack.

"I knew that my former servant would turn against me and this proves it."

Melona continues to stare at the battle concerned, knowing that Airi and Menace are fighting on their enemies' side.

Not wanting to lose the two divisions, the Swamp Witch orders a full charge to the camp. Despite being disorganized, her forces obeyed and began running towards the their defensive stone wall. As some passed the first oil line, an undead skeleton soon steps near the claymore set up in the middle, causing it to explode, enflaming the oil line and those on it and near it, cutting off part of the infantry from the rest, making them vulnerable to machine gun fire from the M2 Browning. Despite cutting down many of the scrambled forces, the scrambled forces continue to charge after the fire lowers, causing them to pass the next oil line and trigger another explosion from the claymore, further dividing the infantry.

It doesn't take long for Melona to become impressed with the enemies' battle strategies.

"It appears that they are fighting quite well aren't they?" Melona turns to the Swamp Witch.

The Swamp Witch smirked in response. "Indeed, but that is what makes the battle so much fun to watch. It will be too boring just to take over the Continent with no resistance."

After the third oil line is set ablaze, Menace flies up as the rest prepare to make a charge. The machine gunners fire again to prevent enemy forces from fully recovering from their traps.

With all of the traps used, Risty begins charging forwards as the rest of her cavalry follows. Claudette was the next to charge with their army, following behind Risty and followed by Leina and Elina. Menace, while floating in the air, points to the enemies and ordered her own resurrected forces to charge, which they did. Alleyne and Nowa wait in the forest with the elves as they were ordered to charge only if the third division charges as well.

Nanael takes matters to her own hands as she helps Airi's spirits take care of the enemies' aerial offense. Tomoe and Echidna were the last to charge with their forces following behind. As they charge, the cavalry soon forms a flying wedge formation, making it easier to smash through enemy lines. Once the allied forces finally clash, this war later turns to an all out battle.

With the allies and enemies mixed up in the battlefield, the gunners and archers were ordered to stop their firing in fear of striking the allies instead of the enemies.

Nathan stays behind and watches the battle with the gunners in case a signal is made that the army has to fall back, although this causes him frustration, as he wanted to get more involved in battle.

Despite being able to weaken and keep the first two divisions away from the camp, the battle becomes a stalemate, as neither side was able to push the other, but the battle remains vicious as more casualties mounted.

Annoyed by the stalemate, the Swamp Witch decides to send the third division to the battlefield in hopes to turn the tide. Knowing that the involvement of the third division was the signal, Alleyne had the archers ambushed them with arrows, catching them off guard. The allied battery also begin to fire at the division after seeing that they are still separated from the allied forces, adding to the casualties.

Despite the surprise attack, their superior numbers made the casualties seem light as many keep charging forward unfazed. Although not causing as much damage as expected, Alleyne and Nowa stick to the plan and had the elven army charge against the third division.

Once the elves clash with the third division, they were able to hold them long enough for some of the other main forces to prepare themselves to battle against the division. Although Nathan and his forces have yet to enter the main battle, it already became a full-scale war.

Despite starting out successful, the enemies' superior numbers soon are slowly overwhelming the main forces and even though the battle is quite a distance away, Nathan could see more casualties mounting up. Knowing that the battle will soon turn to the Swamp Witch's favor, Nathan calls Nanael, who was just finishing a simple battle against a dragon carrying an enemy trooper.

Nanael comes down. "What is going on now?"

"The Swamp Witch has already sent three divisions to the battle and they are already killing of many of our soldiers. Tell everyone to fall back to the camp and form a barrier while the gunners prepare."

"Yes sir?" Nanael then flies off to the battlefield with the remaining enemy aerial offense being handled by Airi's lesser spirits.

Once Nanael is right below the army, she begins to yell out loud to make sure everyone could here.

"EVERYONE, NATHAN ORDERED ALL TROOPS TO FALL BACK! I WILL CREATE A BARRIER TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM ADVANCING AS LONG AS I CAN!"

"Just do it!" Elina yelled.

"Fine, but you don't have to be rude you know."

Nanael immediately lands in crossfire between the allied forces and the Swamp Witch's forces. After dispatching a few undead skeletons, Nanael puts both hands in front of her and begins to concentrate. A barrier soon emerges from Nanael's hand and starts growing wider until both the main forces and enemy forces are completely divided, giving the allied forces some time to retreat.

This did not last long, however. After the barrier has been fully placed, the Swamp Witch and Melona finally march forward with the fourth division following behind. The witch then summons some of the Dark Warriors to break down the barrier. They were successful with their abnormal strength as they broke through after piercing it with their swords. Nanael was knocked down, but easily gets up to attack one of the warriors using her Celestial Sabre and kills one of them, but one of the Dark Warriors immediately takes out her bow and arrow and strikes Nanael before she can react, injuring her arm and forcing her into a retreat with the rest.

Nathan, displeased with the barrier taken down so quickly, begins to get desperate. He ordered the troops to fire the howitzers in an attempt to delay them, but the tactic was only partially successful. While it did somewhat slow down the enemy forces, their numbers allow them to continue charging and none were able to hit the Swamp Witch and the rest of the fourth division. In response, he had the gunners of the M2 Browning and the M1 Garand take position on the wall to fire once they are close enough.

Once the firing began, despite taking out many enemy troops, the Swamp Witch begins to fight back by taking out some of their howitzers with the few surviving cannons that were undamaged, as well as aiming for the wall that blocks their path to the camp. A few of the Dark Warriors were revealed to be archers as well as swordsmen as they were able to take out some of the gunners using their arrows.

Knowing the wall isn't going to hold, he had the rest of the gunners fall back and take a stance. Once another cannon fires, the wall finally came down, only for Nathan to take out his own gun and aims towards the enemy forces.

"Fire!" Nathan ordered.

The gunners were able to take out the front row with Nathan killing another member of the Dark Warriors by shooting him in the head. With guns no longer able to be used to their advantage, Nathan takes out his sword and charges as his troops do the same thing, finally getting into the battle.

Airi, however, did not have much luck finding life force after seeing that she already sucked what is available to her in nearby areas. Though she was able to suck some from living plants, it was not enough for her maid outfit to retain form as it soon starts to vanish. She then remembers that there is a prisoner of war in the camp and plans to suck some of the life force from her.

Once she arrived to the tent were the POW is being locked up, she begins to interrogate her, but not before dismissing the guards who are with her to prevent possible escape.

"Remember me?"

"How could I forget the person who found me out? I am guessing that the battle is no longer to your advantage am I right? The way you are dressed makes you seem unsuited for battle."

"I don't know, but in case we are, I am going to have you help us."

The POW becomes confused and turns to Airi. "And why would I do that?"

"I am a wraith and if you don't do as I saw, I will take all of your life energy until you die."

"So you are threatening to kill me if I don't help?"

"You don't believe me? Then I guess I will have to demonstrate."

As Airi's face gets closer to hers the POW becomes fearful and finally breaks down.

"OKAY! OKAY! I will give you a vital information I know, but only if you let me live."

"That is the deal so tell me."

"The Swamp Witch maybe powerful in magic, but she is not invincible. If you are able to damage her body and defeat her, you will also kill of her main forces, because unlike yours, the Swamp Witch makes a more direct connection to all of them to make the resurrection process faster."

"And how do you know this when I was formerly her servant?"

"She started doing that and when I was revived, I was the only one she did not have a connection with, because according to Melona, I am too weak. That is why I tried to prove myself by infiltrating you camp to steal an important weapon."

"You are weak, but I will keep my end of the bargain by letting you live. However, I still need to consume life force so I will only take some from you."

"No, wait…" Airi kisses the POW before she can say anymore and soon begins sucking her life force until she was left half-exhausted.

"Thanks for the meal. Now it is time for me to help my friends." With her clothing restored, Airi flies off to the battlefield.

Not far from the camp, Aldra and her army of 20,000 are traveling through the mountains as they prepare to make a surprise attack in the battle, but stopped briefly as Aldra looks at the tip of the mountain.

"Is there something wrong your majesty?" Her lieutenant asked.

"I just hope that the army that is fighting right now can last until our arrival. If they lost, there will be no Queen's Blade."

"Then let's hurry before it's too late."

"Understood." Aldra and her army then proceeds to the top in hopes that they themselves can turn the battle around.


	12. Chapter 12

As the war rages on, it appears that the battle isn't going to Nathan's favor as more of the allied forces started taking heavy casualties, despite inflicting heavy damage to the Swamp Witch's forces. Melona also gets involved by disabling a few dozen gunners not too far from the engaging forces of both sides.

When Airi makes it to the battlefield, she soon saw that the situation was worse than when it started as the camp is also slowly being destroyed. She looks around a little more and became surprised when she saw Melona getting involved in the battle and tries to reach her. Two aerial soldiers attempt to cut her off, but Airi summons a couple of her lesser spirits to incapacitate them.

"MELONA!" Airi yelled.

Melona looks up and is surprised to see Airi heading towards her. As Melona becomes distracted, one of her soldiers suddenly went past her to attack one of the more defenseless gunners. Airi sees that and rushes towards the gunner, taking down his attacker with her scythe.

"You okay?" Airi lends her hand to her ally.

The gunner happily took her hand to lift himself up. "Thank you."

"I got things handled here. You and the rest should go and help out the main forces." Airi suggested.

"Of course." The gunner took his weapon and grabbed a sword from a fallen enemy and rushes to battle, leaving Melona and Airi alone for the moment as the rest of the gunners retreat as well, not wanting to harm Airi with gunfire. Airi then turns her attention back to Melona.

"So its true about you switching sides for this war. I always thought that you were the most loyal to the Swamp Witch among us all. What made you switch sides all of a sudden?" Melona already knows the answer, but wants to hear the story from Airi.

"Master was what gave me a life and purpose in this world, which is why I feel that I am under her debt, following every orders she gave me. I don't want to go back to my life as a weak ghost. When I saw Menace's kingdom attacked, she was the one who told me that Master would kill me. I don't want to die the same way. Not again. If fighting is what I have to do to keep who I am now so be it. At least this way I will have that chance."

Once Melona sees Airi's determination to live, she turns away.

Airi becomes confused. "Melona?"

"I have never seen you this determined that you would be willing to sacrifice almost everything before you just to have this new life. I actually want to see more of this side of you."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"The Swamp Witch still has me under contract so I can't help you, but at the same time, I would not want to fight you. I am going stay out of this fight and hope for the best. Besides, your boy is fighting on the opposing side right now and you will probably be mad if I kill him so goodbye."

"Wait Melona!" Melona was able to retreat fast enough to prevent Airi from stopping her.

Once Airi is able to turn her attention back to the battle, one of the male Dark Warriors attempted to ambush her, but was able to react quick enough by blocking the attack with her scythe. In response, the soldier waves off Airi's scythe and kicks her away, sending Airi flying backwards a few feet.

"Not bad, but let's see if you can keep up." Airi immediately gets up and charges at her enemy, resulting in a fast paced swordfight, although Airi only fights with her scythe.

Nathan, on the other hand, appears to be handling well on his own as he easily takes down many enemy soldiers, along with another Dark Warrior, coming right at him using nothing but his sword. He later sees Elina being separated from Leina and becomes outmatched by enemy forces. Elina later loses her balance and falls to the ground. She fearfully watches as an enemy soldier prepares to kill her with its blade.

"ONEE-CHAN!" Elina cries out.

Just before the blade hits Elina, she hears another sword clashing and opens her eyes to see that Nathan, who rushes in to save her, has blocked the killing blow from landing on her.

"Are you all right Elina?"

"Yes, thank you." Nathan became a little surprised to see Elina being more soft-spoken towards him compared to her aggressive personality before, but knows she did it out of gratitude.

Nathan then finishes off the soldier before helping Elina up. "Consider this as returning the favor for helping me fight Echidna. Where is your sister by the way?"

"Not far, but my path has been blocked so I can't get to her." Elina pointed to Leina's direction, which is being overrun by enemy troopers.

Nathan then grabs his gun. "If that is the case then I will make you a path."

"What are you planning to do?"

"You will see. Once you see the enemies disabled, you can charge through them to get to your sister."

Nathan decides to make use of his M320 grenade launcher as he puts a grenade in his gun. He aims slightly above the enemy forces and fires. Once the grenade hits the ground, the explosion has caused the surrounding soldiers to scatter. Realizing the explosion is the signal, Elina charges through before they can recover. He does the same thing for Tomoe as she was nearby.

"Thanks for the help!" Tomoe screamed as she waves at Nathan, who waves at her back.

Echidna is then seen fighting a vicious battle with the Swamp Witch as her 500 years of experience allows her to hold her own.

"You skills are very impressive Echidna. I can see why you wanted to fight me."

"There are only a few people who were able to hold their own against me in battle and apparently, I have another one right in front."

"I don't just hold my own, I also beat those who dare stand in my way." The Swamp Witch uses her black magic to send Echidna away as well as temporarily paralyzing her.

"What did you do to me? I demand to know!" Echidna attempts to move her body, but with no success.

"I just wanted you out of the way so I can win this war. I only kill when I have to, but I leave that job to my soldiers usually. The magic I placed on you maybe temporary, but with the fact that you cannot move for this moment, you will probably be already dead by the time it wears off if my troops get you. Have fun."

The Swamp Witch then left to engage more of the main forces charging right at her.

The elves are also not fairing better as a majority of them are being killed, although there are still some able to hold their own, especially Alleyne and Nowa. Another female Dark Warrior engages with Alleyne during battle.

"Instructor!" Nowa yelled.

"It's okay. Just focus on the battle while I take care of this."

Nowa obeyed as more enemies approach her. She takes out her staff and charge towards them while Alleyne battles.

Airi continues to battle the Dark Warrior she was pitted against, but finds herself outmatched as her reflexes are starting to slow down.

"How am I supposed to defeat one of the legendary guardians of Queen's Blade? At this rate, I won't survive so I better find a weakness and quick." Airi thought to herself.

She then remembers that these soldiers were given new life when they were brought back. In order to defeat the Dark Warrior, she must drain his life force.

"I already had plenty to eat, but I guess I wouldn't mind having seconds." Airi taunts her opponent.

The Dark Warrior charges at her, but Airi dodge his attack and start to quickly take his life force after grabbing his head and put a sleeper hold on him to prevent him from fighting back. Although the warrior weakens, he violently struggles to get Airi off of him, which causes Airi trouble, but refuses to let go as she continues draining his life energy. After a couple of minutes of struggling, the warrior begins to disappear as the Swamp Witch's magic within him disappeared after his life force is drained out, allowing the exhausted Airi to catch her breath.

"I almost forgot how much harder it is against Master's servants compared to others." Airi said to herself.

Nathan fights his way near Alleyne's position, not knowing she is there, but indirectly helps her get rid of the enemies that attempt to kill her during the fight. When they do notice each other, they stared briefly before continuing with their fight.

"How are you doing on your position?" Alleyne asked.

"It is getting overrun, but it's became a stalemate just now as more of our soldiers are arriving to defend it. You doing okay?"

"Yes, but it quite a struggle fighting against him. One moment please." Alleyne finds a weak spot in the warrior's offense and dodges a near strike and impales her on the side with her spear, causing her to disappear.

"Offense was very strong, but there are a couple of weaknesses shown with her defense. 76 points."

"Great battle Alleyne, although you need to work on your strikes using your arms and legs. 88 points in my book."

Alleyne blushed at what Nathan just did. "Don't use my method of teaching against me."

Nathan laughed a bit. "Seems like you can't handle your own teachings being used against you."

"Shut up."

"Instructor! Look out!" before Alleyne could respond to Nowa, a dagger was impaled through her chest as one of the enemy troopers snuck in on her side and took advantage of her distraction. Nathan, completely appalled, retaliates by shooting down the enemy with multiple round, killing her. Nowa reaches Alleyne as she begins to cry while Nathan examines her.

"Instructor!" Nowa attempts to get a response from Alleyne with success.

"I am sorry to the both of you. I shouldn't have let my guard down so you wouldn't have to see me like this."

"It's okay. Your wound is not fatal, but we will have to carry you out of the battle for treatment. Nowa, take Alleynes place if you can." Nathan said.

"Yes sir." Nowa obeyed with relieved.

"No, I can still fight."

"You can't even move. I will watch over Nowa so don't worry."

Nathan calls two available gunners to get Alleyne to a medical tent for treatment. After Alleyne was taken away, he heads to Nowa's position to protect her as promised.

"I hope you are okay with me fighting beside you Nowa."

"I saw you defeat Echidna so of course I wouldn't mind."

Nathan and Nowa then fought side by side for a while and see the Swamp Witch coming close, apparently aiming for Nowa.

"The Swamp Witch is coming this way. Think you could handle her servants while I take care of her?"

"Leave it to me, but come back after you are done."

"Of course." Nathan then heads towards the Swamp Witch.

As Melona explores the empty part of the camp, she saw one of Nathan's Glock 17 pistols, which he dropped during his preparation for the war. Melona took interest of the weapon's design.

"My, so this is one of the boy's weapons huh?" Melona takes the pistol with her as she continues walking away further into the camp.

After the Swamp Witch takes down another elf, Nathan attempt to jump her, but the witch reacted fast enough to block his strike.

"So we meet again boy." The Swamp Witch smiles sinisterly.

"This time I will finish you once and for all." Nathan puts down his gun as he position his sword towards the witch.

"Don't start something you can't finish." The Swamp Witch attempts to cast a spell, which Nathan tries to prepare for.

"I respect your bravery, but it is your funeral if you are willing to take my magic head on."

"We shall see."

The Swamp Witch launches her spell towards Nathan and hits him, but much to his surprise, the spell had no effect on him.

The Swamp Witch is also appalled. "What is the meaning of this?"

Suddenly Nathan remembers the drink Nanael gave him and concludes that this is what is protecting him from the Swamp Witch's magic.

"Looks like it is my lucky day. Your magic is now apparently useless against me thanks to the help of a friend."

All that does was making the Swamp Witch angry. "My magic may not be able to affect you, but I will kill you nonetheless."

The witch picks up a sword from a dead soldier and attempts to strike Nathan with him doing the same. Despite her magic not being able to affect Nathan, she is able to enhance herself with it, making her stronger. Nathan's training, however, allows him to keep up compared to his first fight with her, in which he was easily taken out. A few of the Swamp Witch's forces attempt to interfere on her behalf, but Nanael levitates them to protect her so-called target as she continues fighting in the skies.

"You better win this Nathan!" Nanael yelled, but Nathan ignored her to focus on his battle.

As Nathan continues to clash, he soon realizes that he is still being outmatched as fatigue soon strikes him compared to the witch, who still remains calm and composed, although he is still strong enough to defend himself from her strikes.

The Swamp Witch takes notice. "Getting a little tired are we?"

"Not before I finish you." Nathan attempts to end this quickly by becoming more aggressive with his offense, increasing the strength and striking speed of his sword. This tactic caught the Swamp Witch by surprised, but was able to block them. Realizing that his focus on defense has been put aside from offense out of desperation, the Swamp Witch takes control of the situation. Once she sees Nathan sword striking towards her, she dodges the strike and impales Nathan's chest, causing him to spew blood. His body then falls to the ground injured, but not dead.

"Still alive boy? Looks like this will finish you." Aware that Nathan is immune to curses, the Swamp Witch soon starts to cast a spell guaranteed to kill him. Before the spell is launched a voice was heard.

"NATHAN!"

When Nathan opens his eyes, the first thing he see is Airi standing right in front of him, taking the spells full impact.

"The death of a traitor? How appropriate." The Swamp Witch said.

The dying Airi then falls to Nathan's arms.

"Airi, why did you do that?" Nathan soon breaks down in tears as Airi's body begins to vanish.

"I joined your side in hope that I can find importance in my life through you, but then I realize that you are one of those people I care even more about. I didn't want to let you die."

"Please Airi, please don't." Nathan whispers as he continues to hug Airi tightly.

"It's okay Nathan. I am a wraith so there is no way I could have a normal life like you. It was probably bound to happen sooner or later."

"Don't say that." Nathan begs.

Airi uses her last bit of strength and kisses him on the lips.

"I love you." Airi smiles at Nathan and closes her eyes as she disappears in his arms.

"Airi come back. Please, please, please..." No response came as her body is no longer there leaving Nathan in despair.

"AIRIIIIIIIIII!" Nathan screamed as he continues to cry.

Nanael, who also witnessed the tragedy, begins having tears in her eyes as she just had a recent friendship with Airi.

The patient Swamp Witch watches as Nathan continues to mourn her former servant. Once Nathan is able to focus on the battle, he soon becomes enraged as he stares down at the witch about to lose control of his anger.

The Swamp Witch continues to taunt him. "You were never able to save her in the first place. She was destined to die since the day she turned away from me."

Not wanting to face defeat towards Airi's killer, Nathan gets up ignoring his injuries. "I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

The Swamp Witch position herself, knowing that Nathan has found new strength to fight.

"YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT THE LIVES OF YOUR SERVANTS ARE JUST TOYS TO PLAY WITH? YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN USE THEM FOR YOUR AMBITION WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING THEM?"

"They were revived for that purpose and if it cannot be fulfilled, then there is no point of their existence."

Unable to hold back his rage, Nathan charges at the Swamp Witch at full strength with the intention of killing her to avenge those she killed.

"ITS OVERRRRRR!"

**I am not going to spoil it too much, but once you see the next chapter, some of you might be relieved with what I have planned.**


	13. Chapter 13

Nathan and the Swamp Witch finally encounter each other one on one for the first time since their fight in front of Rana's house. During the fight, the witch overwhelms Nathan and impales him through the chest. The Swamp Witch then decides to finish him by creating a killing spell, but before the witch can cast the spell, Airi, who has grown fond of Nathan, blocks her attack, taking the hit instead. Just before her body disappears, she confesses her love to Nathan and dies in his arms. Unable to control his emotions, Nathan goes berserk, ignoring his injury and charges at the Swamp Witch, intending to kill her.

"Let's see how you like the pain you cause to your servants!" Nathan lifts his right fist as he charges.

The Swamp Witch attempts to strike Nathan with her sword, but he evades and strike the witch's face with full force, sending her flying a long distance backwards. Before she can recover, Nathan charges at the witch and violently pummels her body with his fists. Nanael watches the fight worried, knowing that Nathan has lost some of his humanity in his rage. Enemy soldiers again attempted to interfere, but Nathan easily took them down before continuing his work on the Swamp Witch.

"You are just as much of a monster as I am." The Swamp Witch remarked, but is still unable to fight back.

Nathan then uses his strength as part of the beat down as he grabs the Swamp Witch by her leg and begins slamming her body all over the ground. His partial loss of humanity causes his merciful side of his personality to slowly subside as he continues his beating. Nathan temporarily stops to see if the Swamp Witch is dead, seeing that she isn't moving, but to his surprise, the witch opens her eyes and attempts to speak.

"Do you really think you are doing any favors for my servant? You can't even save yourself from becoming like this."

Angered by the Swamp Witch's words, Nathan screams and tosses her body in the air while forming a fist. As soon as her body is falling within his height, Nathan punches her on the abdomen at full strength, causing her to crash through a part of the already destroyed stone wall. Nathan then picks up his sword and walks up slowly to her.

The Swamp Witch attempts to sit up. The strike to her abdomen has caused major injuries to her body as blood begins to spew out of her mouth.

"I guess I shouldn't have taken my opponents too lightly." The Swamp Witch said to herself.

The next things she sees is Nathan standing right in front of her with his sword aiming straight at her.

"Am I going to die from a monster just like Airi?"

Hearing this causes Nathan to become hesitant to strike. He then suddenly had flashbacks of his past experiences in the Continent and finally remembers his morals and battle that is currently happening. Seeing that Nathan has regained his senses, she strikes him on the leg with a knife she had hidden in her attire, causing him to fall. Before the Swamp Witch could kill him, she spots Melona heading towards her direction and hands the sword over to her.

"Good, you are here. Finish my job for me will you?" The Swamp Witch orders Melona.

Melona takes a brief look at Nathan, whom is looking right back at her while clutching on his wounds on his chest and leg. Melona had another idea in mind. She aims the sword towards Nathan, but much to his surprise, she drops the sword and shoots the Swamp Witch instead with the Glock 17 she found, putting her down on her knees.

"I don't appreciate people killing my friends." Melona retreats before the Swamp Witch could get up.

Nathan attempts to reach for his sword, but the Swamp Witch steps on his hand and grabs it.

"You will all die soon anyway."

Aldra, who is still in hiding, orders an arrow to be fired. The arrow hits the sword, forcing the Swamp Witch to release her grip on the weapon. Soon, arrows begin bombarding the battlefield, mainly towards enemy soldiers. Gainos forces begin to charge from all sides, aiding the allied forces. The tables are turned as enemy forces are now falling back.

The Swamp Witch sees that this is now a losing battle, but does not give up as she attempts to reach for Nathan's sword. Nathan, who is greatly weakened by his wounds, lies motionlessly and watches as the Swamp Witch grabs the only weapon surrounding them.

Nathan suddenly hears a gunshot and sees the Swamp Witch falling in front of him, dead. It turns out that Rana and his family secretly followed Nathan and Airi to the camp as he sees Cattleya and Owen following and the gun used to kill the Swamp Witch was the souvenir he gave to Rana, which he obviously put to use.

Rana sees Nathan injured and gets worried as he rushes to him. "Onii-chan, are you okay?"

"So now I am your brother, huh?" Nathan laughs a little much to his relief.

"Where is Onee-chan? I thought she was with you in battle."

Nathan becomes saddened as he continues to think about Airi. "I am sorry Rana, but Airi is no longer with us. She died during battle before I can even save her."

Rana did not take the news well and begins to cry. Nathan struggles to get up and attempts to comfort Rana despite being bloodied. Rana is then locked into an embrace with the equally dismayed Nathan as he continues to cry. Not wanting Nathan's life to end in tragedy, Nanael flies back up to Heaven once she sees that her part in the battle is done. With the Swamp Witch dead, her former servants turning against her, and the rest of the enemy soldiers falling back, the war to protect Queen's Blade has been won.

In the aftermath of the war, the gates of Gainos have been reopened to begin the Queen's Blade tournament. Many female warriors who has taken part in the war enters through, except for a few, most noticeably Cattleya as she, Owen, and Nathan continues to take care of Rana, who is still mourning over the loss of Airi. Nathan, who is still recovering from his injuries, continues to comfort him as he also tries to figure out how to get back to his world, knowing that his dad needs him. In an attempt to cheer Rana up, Nathan decides to take him for a hike in the forest, in which his parents immediately agreed to. As they continue their hike, Nathan hears a familiar voice.

"Seems like you have earned the respect from some of the elves with your leadership."

Nathan turns around and sees Alleyne and Nowa in a carriage on the way to the tournament.

"You definitely pass with 100 points for the risks you are willing to take for us. It is because of you we won the war."

Nathan still feels unhappy. "Then why doesn't it feel like a victory?"

Nowa sympathizes with Nathan's situation. "I don't blame you for your sadness. A lot of lives have been lost in the war. We still mourn for the ones we care about so you are not alone."

"We better get going. The Queen's Blade tournament is going to start soon."

"Yes Instructor." Nowa lies back as the carriage starts to move.

Alleyne turns back towards Nathan one last time and smiles. "If you ever need us, you know where to find us."

Nathan then turns to Rana. "Do you want to go fishing with me?"

"Of course." Rana soon begins to smile again and Nathan smiles back.

"Most of your friends are nice."

Nathan pets Rana on the head. "They are aren't they?"

Once they found a lake in the forest, they took out the worms and immediately launch their poles into the water. After catching about 3 fishes, Nathan saw Nanael suddenly dropping out of the sky hitting him hard on the head, catching both him and Rana by surprise.

Once Nathan recovers, he sees Nanael on top of him still dizzy from the headbutt.

"Geez Nanael, watch where you fly." Nathan grabs his head still feeling the pain on his head.

Once Nanael recovers, she puts her face closer to his and smiles sinisterly. "Sorry, but you better thank me for this. I had a lot of trouble trying to convince the Chief Angel taking part in this."

"What? What are you talking about?"

Nanael kisses Nathan on the cheek and flies off. "You will see."

"Nathan, look!" Nathan turns back and looks up only to see Airi flying back towards him.

"Airi?"

"Onee-chan!" Rana becomes excited compared to Nathan, who is more confused by her surprise return.

As soon as Airi lands, Rana wasted no time running to her and was given a hug in return.

"It's really nice to see you both again."

"Airi, is that really you? Did you really come back?" Nathan said still shocked.

Airi walks towards Nathan and puts her hand on his cheek and giggles open touching him.

"You can thank Nanael for that. I also see that by the fact that most of you I know are alive that you have won the war. It's sad to see with these injuries, but I am more happy that you are able to survive."

"You can thank your friend Melona for that."

Airi becomes a little surprised hearing her name. "Melona?"

"Melona delayed the Swamp Witch from killing me by turning against her using a weapon she took from me. Apparently she didn't take your death well either."

"Sometimes Melona can be a mystery even to me, but seeing how she actually helped out against the war, I think it is safe to assume which side she is on."

As the three continue to celebrate their reunion, Melona secretly watches them from the trees.

"With my contract with the Swamp Witch broken, I am finally free to do what I want, but first I want to win the Queen's Blade tournament. See you until then my friend." Melona then walks away.

Their reunion was short-lived as Nanael notified Nathan a day later that the Head Angel plans to teleport him back to his world. Seeing that his influence might unintentionally change the Continent, Nathan reluctantly agrees much to the dismay of Airi, Rana and his family, and even Alleyne as he tells everyone he is going back to his home world. Leina is just as sad as everyone else while Elina tries to deny her feelings, but finally shows that she has grown slightly fond of Nathan as she sadly turns away upon hearing the news. Not wanting to see Elina like that, Nathan runs towards her and hugs her from behind.

"You idiot! What are you doing?" Elina continues to struggle.

"I don't know if we will ever see each other again, but the memories won't be lost. This I can promise you Elina. I am sorry that I have to leave."

Once Elina stops struggling, she turns around and embraces Nathan as she begins to cry.

"This is the first time that I ever have these feelings for someone other than my sister. Somehow I always feel safe around you as if you are a part of our family. Please promise me you won't forget."

"I won't, but promise me that you will try to become a better person." Elina nodded.

After comforting Elina, Nathan turns to Alleyne and Nowa and offers his hand to the older elf.

"Thank you for helping me out until they end. I am glad to see that the elves and humans were able to work together side by side."

Alleyne accepts Nathan's handshake. "You were the one who brought us closer together. I am very glad that there is another that me and Nowa could trust."

Nowa briefly hugs Nathan. "I want to believe that we can see each other again someday so I am not going to say goodbye."

Nathan nodded in response.

Nanael then grabs Nathan by surprise and hugs him from behind. "Don't forget about me too, okay?"

"I will definitely remember you as well."

Nanael then points to the sky illuminating a bright light, signaling that the portal has been opened. Nathan turns to Airi and Rana, who are accompanied by Cattleya and Owen.

Rana begins to cry and rushes towards Nathan to embrace him.

"Why do you have to leave?"

"You are not the only one who has a family Rana. My father will be lonely without me. I can't just leave him like that since my mother left."

"I see. Then Onee-chan and I won't say goodbye then. I really want to see you again." Rana lets go of Nathan.

"I believe that our paths will cross once again if I am needed."

Lastly, Nathan turns to Airi. "About the confession you made before you disappeared, I have been thinking about that for quite some time and I feel the same way honestly. If I were to come to this world again, you would definitely be the one I will be looking for."

Airi kisses Nathan again on the lips. "If you do come back, can you promise me that you would cook something for me?"

This caught Nathan by surprise. "I thought you only needed to suck on life energy."

"Not anymore since I was revived by an angel instead. I still have all my powers, but I realized that she made my body more human by requiring their sustenance. It kind of isn't fair that Menace gets to eat your cooking, but I can't."

Nathan laughs in response. "That will definitely be done when I come back."

After saying his last goodbyes, Nathan makes his way to the area in the forest where he first came here and realizes that the portal is located inside of a lake nearby. Nathan turns back briefly to get one last look of his friends and jumps into the lake as everyone watches.

When he wakes up, he finds himself back in London next to the bridge from where he fell off. As he walks back home, he remembers that he still has his housekeys inside of the bag he was carrying and opens the door to see his depressed father.

"Nathan?"

"I am sorry for being one for so long dad, but I needed this trip to find myself."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going somewhere? You had me worried sick so I called the police and they labeled you as missing."

"I was hoping that you would see me as a new man the next time I saw you. I didn't mean to leave just like that, but I felt that it was something I needed to do for myself. I am really sorry."

"It doesn't matter anymore. I am just glad that you are home my son."

The father gets up and the two embraced for the first time in quite a while.

About a year later, Nathan graduates from college and is now the chairman of his father's weapons industry while his father remains the CEO and is now currently dating a woman who has treated Nathan as if she was a caring mother. Nathan approves their relationship as he is reminded of his relationship with Airi back in the Continent and kept a painting of her given to him as a gift by a local artist Cattleya hired.

His father decides to visit Nathan in his office one more time before finishing his shift.

"Hey son, I just want you to know that you will be inheriting everything I have once I retire, but you also have to promise me that you will live your life in the only way that makes you happy."

"That I can do father. You better hurry before your girlfriend gets angry with you for being late."

The father smiles before he leaves. Once the father left the office, one of the officers alerted Nathan of a small struggle occurring outside of the building. Nathan decides to see what the commotion is and saw his father and his girlfriend among the crowd. Once Nathan passes through, the first things he sees are some familiar faces.

"Why is everybody looking at us like that?" Elina becomes irritated.

"Because you girls stand out among the rest of the crowd." Airi said, now wearing more casual clothes to blend in consisting of a T-shirt, fashion boots, a leather jacket, and a red miniskirt, although her hair stays the same.

Alleyne also becomes annoyed by the attention. "It is your fault for not warning us that there are no elves here Nanael."

"Sorry about that." Nanael laughs out of embarrassment.

"What are you girls doing here? In other words, how did you get here?" Nathan asked.

As soon as they heard Nathan's voice, the girls came rushing in with Airi being the one who launches herself towards him and locks him in an embrace.

"I told you that we would be able to see each other again." Airi said happily.

Alleyne, Nowa, Leina, and Nanael stared happily at the two although Elina kept her arms crossed and turns away in denial.

"How did the six of you actually get here anyway?"

"You can thank the Chief Angel for that. She says as a reward for helping us win the war, you get to see us one more time." Nanael whispers to Nathan.

"It's more like you get to see me."

"Hey son, do you know these girls?"

"Yes father. I encountered them during my trip last year. They happen to be friends of mine and the one that is hugging me right now happens to be my girlfriend."

"Wow, good job son. You manage to score yourself a very beautiful girlfriend. I wish you two the best."

"Thank you and it is an honor to meet the father." Airi replied.

"It is also an honor for me to meet you. Thank you for taking care of my son in his time of need. By the way, what about the rest of the girls?"

"Let's just say they are from another world. What they wear is part of a tradition even if it looks like a costume. There are a lot of things in this world we don't know father."

"Although the laws are not strict in what people should wear, you better get them some appropriate clothing just to be safe. You already attracted this much attention and it will be bad if the situation goes further." The father suggested.

"Of course. You better follow me." The girls obeyed and they stopped at a nearby department store.

The girls become fascinated by the clothing and explore a little to find what to wear.

"No need to worry about deciding what clothes to wear. I will pay for all of them." Nathan told the girls.

After Airi looked around a bit, she turns back to Nathan. "There is something that I haven't told anybody other than Nanael. I am actually allowed to stay in this world along with allowing myself to go back using the milk that the angels gave me. I expect you to teach me more about this world of yours, because everything is different."

"If you want to stay of course, but for now since most of you aren't actually staying for long, we might as well have some fun in this world while we can before I decide to teach you. By the way, who won the tournament?"

"Leina did, but gave her rule to Claudette, believing that her older sister is better at it."

"As expected."

After the girls are done shopping, everyone becomes excited seeing and hearing new things that they never had back in the Continent, taking great interest over typical things that many people have in their homes such as TV and Cars. Nathan bought Elina a stuffed cat to see if it could help her be more honest towards him. Elina blushes and thanked him in response. Knowing that all of them can visit his world on occasions, Nathan becomes excited on what could happen in their next adventure should they come and visit again.

**In the ruins of Mordor…**

Legolas and Aragorn found signs that some of Sauron's followers actually survive the destruction.

"It appears that I was right. Just because Sauron is dead doesn't mean all of his forces are as well." Legolas dug through some of the rocks to find some dried blood, but no body.

"It also appears that they left long ago yet there are no reports of attacks in all of Middle-Earth." Aragorn stated.

"With their current state, they are too weak to fight against the people of Middle-Earth. We better go search around for clues that might lead us to wear they are planning." Legolas suggested, in which Aragorn agrees.

As they search, they find a small cavern on Mount Doom and actually saw a gateway created by Sauron's leftover magic before his demise.

"It appears that it is not our world that they are targeting anymore."

"Shall I come with you Legolas?"

"No, you have a kingdom to keep safe in case I am wrong. I will go alone to find resistance. At the strength they are at right now, it is not possible for them to even take over a small country so it is not too late. Give me a few months and I promise I will come back after this is over."

"Take care of yourself my friend."

Legolas steps into the gateway as Aragorn watches with concern.

**To be continued…**

**There will be a sequel to this fanfic and based on the last scene, you can already tell that this is going to be a crossover. I hope you enjoyed this fanfic and, hopefully, you will enjoy the sequel.**


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